LIBRAE OF CONGRESS. 

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Sh.el£ Bt^ . 

UNITED STATES .2 AMERICA. 



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AN INQUIRY: 
ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



SIX SERMONS. 



ALSO, 



HAVE THE DEAD KNOWLEDGE? 



GEORGE STORRS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
1847. 




The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



v. * ' * £b 

ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



SIX SERMONS. 



ALSO, 



HAVE THE DEAD KNOWLEDGE? 



GEORGE STORES. 

I > 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
1847. 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



AN INQUIRY : ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL f 
By George Storrs. 



FUST BZSGC&tFBSB. 

* May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakost is ? For 
thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know, there- 
fore, what these things mean." Acts xvii. 19, '20. 

Paul, in preaching the gospel, came to Athens ; he there 
beheld an altar inscribed "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." 
At the idolatry he saw, his spirit was stirred within him ; 
hence he disputed daily with them that met him. He en- 
countered certain philosophers — wise men, no doubt, — at 
least in their own estimation -— and some of them said : 
What will this babbler say ? Others said, he seemeth to be 
a setter forth of strange Gods. No doubt they thought he 
was a "heretic" of the blackest stamp; yet they seemed 
disposed to hear him, before they passed final sentence upon 
him. In this respect they certainly manifested a better dis- 
position than many of the present day, who are so wise in 
their own estimation, that no one can advance a thought to 
which they will listen, unless it has first passed through the 
head of some doctor of divinity. Not so with the men of 
Athens ; " strange" as the things were that the Apostle 
taught, they were desirous to know what the new doctrine 
was. 

Various errors exist among men in regard to revealed 
truth. These errors go to show how imperfect we are in 
knowledge— the mistakes committed in our education — the 
reluctance of the mind to investigate— -and a want of moral 

(3) 



4 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



courage to step aside from the track marked out by learned 
men, as they are thought to be, but who, most likely, have 
conducted their own investigations under the influence of 
the fear of being denounced as heretics, if they should be 
led to results unlike to those who are reputed for wisdom. 
But "if any man will be wise, let him become a fool that 
he may be wise," is the language of inspiration itself. 

"We honour God only so far as we have right conceptions 
of his character, government and purposes, and act in ac- 
cordance with them. If we believe God will reward, or 
punish men contrary to his own word, we dishonour him, 
however much sincerity we may possess. Truth and the 
honour of God are inseparable : and we cannot glorify our 
Heavenly Father by erroneous opinions. Yet, most pro- 
fessed christians, if pressed on the subject, can give little 
better reason for what they believe, on many points, than 
that their teachers told them so. 

It is a solemn duty to study our Bibles, and form our 
opinions of what they teach for ourselves, as we must an- 
swer for ourselves. But in this study the adoption of cor- 
rect principles of interpretation is of the first importance. 
Without this, our appeal to the word of God may only 
serve to confirm us in error. 

The plainest truths of the Bible have been wrapped in 
darkness by pretending that the language of the Scriptures 
has a mystical or secret meaning that does not appear in 
he words employed. Such a principle of interpretation is 
a libel on the Bible. That book professes to be a revelation ; 
and so plain, too, that the wayfaring man can understand 
it ; and the Saviour says, " If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine." The language of the Bible, 
then, should be explained as the language of any other 
book, i. e. according to its plain and obvious meaning : un- 
less there is a clear necessity for departing from it. With 
these remarks I proceed to 

The Question at Issue, or Point in Debate. 

The question is not, whether the soul can be immortal, 
nor whether the souls of the righteous will be immortal ; 
but — Will the wicked who live and die in their sins, con- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 5 



tinue eternally, or without end, in a state of conscious be- 
ing ? Or, once more — Is the punishment God has threatened 
to sinners an eternal state of conscious being in misery ? 
This involves the question of the immortality of the soul. 
For if all men can be proved to be immortal, I conceive it 
clearly follows from the Bible, that the finally impenitent 
will be punished with eternal conscious being in misery. 

The Arguments isr Proof op Man's Loiortalitt. 

These are mainly three, viz. : First — The desire all men 
feel for it. Second — That the soul is spiritual, hence in 
destructible, and therefore immortal. Third — That God 
wills it to be immortal. 

To these, perhaps, another should be added, viz. : " All 
nations and people have believed the soul immortal." To 
this last argument, I answer — There is no evidence that all 
nations and people have believed it. There is evidence to 
the contrary. In the " Dialogue on the immortality of the 
soul" — found in "Plato's Dialogues" — Socrates, having 
spoken of the nature of the soul, says — « Shall a soul of 
this nature, and created with all these advantages, be dissi- 
pated and annihilated as soon as it parts from the body, as 
most men believe P" Here the fact is brought out, that so 
far from its being a general belief that the soul is immortal, 
the exact reverse was true in Socrates' day. 

So far from all nations and people believing the soul im- 
mortal, there were a large class among the Jews who did 
not believe it, viz. : the Sadducees, who said, " There is no 
resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." — Hence, there is no 
truth in the argument, that all nations and people have be- 
lieved in the immortality of the soul. 

I proceed now to take up the three main arguments in 
support of the immortality of the soul. 

1. The desire all men feel for it. This argument can 
avail nothing, unless it can be proved, that what men desire 
they will possess. But men desire many things, they never 
do and never can obtain. All men desire happiness ; but 
does it, therefore, follow, that all men will be happy ! Cer- 
tainly not. So, neither does it follow, because all men desire 
Emmortality, that therefore, they are immortal : that desire 
1 * 



6 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



is, without doubt, a strong principle implanted in us by the 
author of our being, to excite us to a course of living that 
shall secure that invaluable blessing, which he designed to 
bestow upon man, if he would walk in obedience to the law 
of his God. Hence, the dread of the loss of it was to in- 
fluence men in enduring whatever of trial might be their lot, 
during their sojourn in this state of probation ; and, pro- 
perly considered, will be a mighty stimulus to enable us to 
suffer even unto death, if need be, that we may save our 
lives unto ETERNAL LIFE. 

2. It is said — The soul is spiritual, hence indestructible, 
and therefore immortal. One single consideration is suffi- 
cient to overthrow this argument, and show that it has no 
force. He who created can destroy. Our Saviour saith, 
"Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in 
hell." 

But the objector says, " Nothing can be destroyed — not 
even a grain of sand." If all the objector means is, man 
cannot destroy any thing, I admit it ; but if he means to 
prove any thing by this objection, he intends to be under- 
stood as saying, God cannot destroy any thing. Such an 
argument might pass in the mouth of a professed atheist ; 
but for a professed believer in the being and power of Je- 
hovah to use it, is shocking ; unless he can prove that God 
has said, that nothing He has created shall be destroyed. 

Because man cannot destroy " a grain of sand," does it 
therefore follow that God cannot do it, if He will ? If it is 
true, that because man cannot destroy a grain of sand, God 
cannot do it — it is equally true that, because man cannot 
create a grain of sand, God cannot do it ; and thus we 
should be driven into the theory, that all things which we 
consider created, are, in fact, eternal, and never had a be- 
ginning. If the objector is not willing to take this position, 
let him admit that God can, if he will, destroy, or cause to 
cease to have existence " the souls" He has « made." 

Having examined the first two arguments in favour of 
the immortality of the souls of all men, and shown, as I 
think, that they have no foundation in truth, the ground of 
the argument is narrowed to this one point, viz. : — 



AEE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



1 



3. Js it the will of God that wicked men shall be im- 
mortal ? 

In determining this question, I shall call no man master 
or father that now lives or ever did live. It will weigh not 
a straw in my mind, what any of the (so called) " fathers," 
have said or written ; but what saith the testimony of God ? 
" To the law and to the testimony ; if any man speak not 
according to these, it is because there is no light in him." 

To commence, I call attention to what man lost by the 
fall. In order to understand this, let us look at man prior 
to the fall. He was a probationer. For what ? Not for 
happiness — for he had that in possession. Not for life, 
merely, as he was in the enjoyment of that also. I con- 
clude it was for eternal life — figured and set forth before 
his eyes by the " tree of life" — as death, the opposite, was 
set forth by the " tree of knowledge of good and evil." 
Each of those trees, I conclude, were signs ; the one of 
Life, the other of Death — not of man's body merely, but 
of the whole man ; or, in other words, " Life and Death" 
were " set before" him. Eternal life must depend upon the 
absence of evil ; if evil is introduced, death must follow. 
Man had before him a standing call and warning— a call to 
obedience and Life ; a warning against disobedience, or sin 
and Death. He disregarded the warning, and slighted the 
call — he sinned. Now, " The Lord said, lest he (man) 
put forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and 
LIVE FOR EVER, he (God) drave out the man, and he 
placed a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep 
the way of the tree of life." That is, as clear as language 
can express it, the Lord God determined, or willed, that 
man should not be immortal in his sin ; or, in other words, 
in the day man sinned he lost all title to immortality, and 
was cut off from the " tree of life ;" or, the sign God had 
given 1 \ of eternal life, was "hid from" his " eyes." 

That this loss relates to the whole man, and not to the 
body merely, as some suppose, I prove from the fact, that 
if it related to the body only, there is not a particle of evi- 
dence in the transaction, of pronouncing sentence upon 
man, by his Maker, that any penalty was threatened to the 
soul, or inflicted upon it. There is surely none in the con- 



8 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



text ; and it appears to me, that if the exclusion from the 
tree of life, lest man should eat and live for ever, does not 
relate to the whole man, there is no evidence there that the 
denunciation of God against man affected anything but 
man's body. God could have constituted man immortal in 
his sin and misery ; but it appears it was his pleasure that 
he should not be ; and this will of God is expressed in the 
text under consideration. 

Again — That this loss related to the whole man, I prove 
from the fact, that our Saviour, in his address to one of the 
seven churches of Asia, says, " To him that overcometh, 
will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of 
the paradise of God." How clear the reference, and how 
obvious, that it is the whole man that is spoken of ; and 
that none are to have access to that tree, or have immor- 
tality, but such as overcome ! 

But I wish to call attention further to the tree of life, to 
show that it related to something more than the body. 
Revelation, 22d chapter and 2d verse, we read thus ; — « In 
the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, 
was there the tree of life," &c. ; and at the 14th verse— 
" Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they 
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
the gates into the city." The reference here is too clear 
to be misunderstood ; no one will pretend that this relates 
to the body merely. By what authority, then, do they as- 
sume it, in regard to the " tree of life" in Paradise ? 

Allow me here to introduce an extract or two from Rich- 
ard Watson. His "Institutes" are well known among 
many in this country, as well as in Europe. In his ser- 
mon on " Paradise shut and re-opened," he has this re- 
mark — " The tree of life was a kind of sacrament. As the 
promise of immortality was given to Adam, every time he 
ate of this tree by God's appointment, he expressed his 
faith in God's promise ; and God, as often as he ate of it, 
sealed the promise of immortality to man. In this view, 
sin excluded man from the tree of life, as he lost his title 
to immortality." Again, Mr. Watson says, in his sermon 
on « The tree of life," — « It has been suggested that it was 
the natural means appointed to counteract disease by med* 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



9 



tea! virtue $ and thus to prevent bodily decay and death. 
This," he says, » is not an improbable hypothesis ; but we 
have no authority for it ; and if we had, our inquiries 
would not be at an end. For this hypothesis relates only 
to the body ; whereas we find the tree of life spoken of in 
connexion with the life of the soul — not only with immor- 
tality on earth, but with immortality in heaven." 

" It is not, therefore, without reason," he continues, " that 
many eminent divines have considered this tree as a con- 
stant pledge to Adam of a higher life ; and since there was 
a covenant of works, the tenor of which was, ? this do, and 
thou shalt live,'— and as we know God has ever connected 
signs, seals, and sacraments with his covenants — analogy 
may lead us to conclude that this tree was the matter of 
sacrament — the eating of it a religious act ; and that it was 
called ( the tree of life/ because it was not only a means 
of sustaining the immortality of the body, but the pledge 
of spiritual life here, and of a higher and more glorious life 
in a future state, to which man might pass, not, indeed, by 
death, but by translation." 

" This will explain," continues Mr. Watson, " the rea- 
son why the fruit of that tree was prohibited after man had 
sinned. He had broken the covenant, and had no right 
now to eat of the sign, the sacrament, the pledge of im- 
mortality. « Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of 
the tree of life, and eat and live for ever : therefore, the 
Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. God 
resumed his promises, withdrew the sign of them, and now 
refused any token or assurance of his favour." 

Mr. Watson adds, " The Judge passes sentence, but the 
Judge also gives a promise ; and man is bidden to hope in 
another object, 4 the seed of the woman.' That seed was 
henceforth to be his tree of life? 

Thus much for Mr. Watson. He did not hold the doc- 
trine for which I contend, in regard to the final destiny of 
the wicked ; still, there are passages in his works which 
look strongly that way. 

I conceive that Adam's posterity in his loins when he 
sinned, would never have come into conscious being, had 
it not been for the promised " seed of the woman." Man, 



10 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



after his apostacy, was without hope ; and being in despair, 
his situation must have been such as to cut off all pleasure 
or enjoyment, and so render him as incapable of propaga- 
ting his species as the devils, till such time as his Maker 
gave him the cheering hope of a deliverer. 

Adam himself came short of immortality, and would, 
ultimately, have utterly perished, or ceased to be, had it not 
>een for the « seed of the woman." This truth, then, 
comes full into view, that there is no immortality in sin. 
Or, in other words, God has willed that the wicked shall 
not have immortality. Adam being cut off from immor- 
tality could not possibly communicate it to his posterity : 
this invaluable blessing therefore was ever after to be had 
« only" in Christ ; for God has given unto us ETERNAL 
LIFE, and this life is in his Son ; so that " He that hath 
the Son, hath life" whilst "he that hath not the Son of 
God hath not life." 

Facts prom God's Word for Consideration. 

Before I proceed further, I wish to call attention to a few 
facts from the Scriptures of divine truth. 

The word " Eternal" occurs but twice in the Old Testa- 
ment. Once in Deut. 33 : 27, and is applied to God — 
" The eternal God is thy refuge," — and once in Isa. 60 : 15, 
and is spoken of the people of God — " I will make thee an 
eternal excellency." 

The phrase " Eternity" occurs but once in the Bible, 
viz., Isa. 57 : 15, and is applied to God — " Thus saith the 
high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" 

How common to hear men talk about eternity — and to 
hear ministers tell their hearers they are going into eternity 
— and urge that consideration upon them, to call up atten- 
tion. " Prepare for eternity," say the) 7 , To my mind, it 
is evident, that consideration is not made use of, in the 
Scriptures, to lead men to God. Jesus Christ, nor his apos- 
tles ever used it They preached that men were perishing 
— dying — exposed to death — in danger of losing everlast- 
ing life — travelling in the way that leadeth to destruction, 
&c. : exhorted them to repent — believe — to lead a new life 
— to save themselves from this untoward generation — to lay 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? II 



hold on eternal life, &c but never told their hearers— 

" You are hastening to eternity for, I repeat it, that is 
not true, in fact. When men die, they go into the invisi- 
ble state, and are reserved until the judgment. 

The phrase " eternal life," occurs no where in the Bible, 
except in the New Testament, and is always spoken of the 
righteous $ it never has connected with it any qualifying 
terms, such as " happy," " blessed," or " miserable," &c, 
but simply denotes life in opposition to the death of the 
wicked. See Romans 6:21-23. "What fruit had ye 
then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the 
end of those things is death. But now being made free 
from sin, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end 
everlasting life ; for the wages of sin is death : but the gift 
of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Here life and death are put in opposition, and no intima- 
tion is given that the death of the wicked is eternal con- 
scious being in torments. 

It is very common to hear people talk about a happy 
eternal life — a blessed eternal life — a glorious eternal life ; 
as though the language of the Bible were not explicit 
enough. Such additions to the word of God, give evidence, 
if we had no other, that there is something defective in their 
theory. Such additions ought always to be looked upon 
with suspicion ; and, if received at all, be received with 
great caution. 

In interpreting the Scriptures, if we would be saved from 
the wild fields of conjecture, and save ourselves from an en- 
tire dependence upon others for the knowledge of what the 
Bible teaches, we must have some settled principles of in- 
terpretation, The following I consider the most important ; 
first — That words are to have their primary, and obvious 
meaning, unless there is a clear necessity of departing from 
it. By their primary and obvious meaning, I mean, the 
plain, and direct sense of the words, such as they may be 
supposed to have in the mouths of the speakers, who used 
them according to the language of that time and country in 
which they lived, without any of those learned, artificial, and 
forced senses, which are put on them by those who claim 
the right to be the « authorized expounders of the Bible, '■ 



12 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



Such forced sense is, usually, nothing more than the pecu 
liar notions that they have been bred up in, and may have 
no better foundation than the superstition of some good old 
ancestor. 

The next principle of interpretation I would lay down is, 
That it is a truth, from w T hich we are not to depart without 
the clearest evidence, that words are never used to mean 
more than their primary signification ; though they may be, 
and often are, used to signify something less. Not to ad- 
here to this principle is to make revelation no revelation. 
Those who abandon this principle may as well admit, at 
once, that the common people ought not to have the Bible, 
for it will only lead them astray. 

The primary meaning of the term death is, " the extinc- 
tion of life." To say, then, that when God threatens men 
with death, he does not mean they shall die, but be kept 
alive in eternal torments, it seems to me is not warranted 
by any ordinary use of language. 

What should we think of a law that says, " For murder 
thou shalt die," if we were told the meaning is not, that the 
transgressor shall actually die, but be kept alive in unde- 
scribable torments, protracted to the greatest possible extent? 
Would any man think he was fairly dealt with by such an 
administration? And would he not have just cause of 
complaint at the want of defmiteness in the terms used to 
denote the punishment threatened ! 

The term Immortal" occurs but once in the Bible, viz.: 
1 Timothy I: 17; and is applied to God. "The king 
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." 

If we were to judge by the frequency that we hear the 
phrase " immortal soul," we should suppose it was the most 
common expression in the Scriptures. You will hardly 
hear a sermon without the preacher often telling, with great 
emphasis, about " the immortal soul," as though he thought 
that qualifying term was all important to impress his hear- 
ers with a sense of the soul's value : not content, with the 
Saviour, to ask — « What is a man profited if he shall gain 
the whole world, and lose his own soul ?" No, that would 
be quite too weak, in his estimation, and he must strengthen 
it by adding, «« immortal." To show the absurdity of such 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL. 



13 



a course, I have only to say-— That which is immortal, can- 
not be lost. Hence, the persons who use this qualifying 
term, have to add another, and say — lose all " happiness." 
Now, the loss of the soul, and the loss of happiness, are two 
very different things, and each capable of being expressed in 
appropriate language. To say, then, that when our Saviour 
said, a man may " lose his own soul," he did not mean that 
he will come short of immortality, perish, or cease all sense 
and life, but only that he shall lose the happiness of his 
soul, is, in my mind, making sad havoc of the word of 
God. 

As in sermons, so it is in prayers. Men seem to think 
prayers have but little power, unless they spice them often 
with, " immortal soul :" and they would probably stare at 
you, as though they thought you an infidel, if you were to 
tell them that the Bible no where calls the soul immortal. 

How often, too, do we hear the phrase " deathless spirit," 
in direct contradiction of the testimony of God, which ex- 
pressly declares, " the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE." 

A hymn, often sung, begins as follows : — 

" A charge to keep I have, 
A God to glorify, 
A never dying soul to save 
And fit it for the sky." 

The same hymn ends thus : — 

Help me to watch and pray. 
And on thyself rely. 
Assured if I my trust betray, 
I shall forever die." 

How a never dying soul can forever die, it will take at 
least a poet to tell ; or a very learned divine. Common 
people are not skilled in such palpable contradictions. 

The term " immortality ," occurs only five times in the 
Bible, and is never spoken of the wicked ; but is brought 
to view as something to be sought after, and to be found 
alone in Christ. " To them who by patient continuance in 
well doing, seek for honour, glory, immortality, — eternal 
life," Rom. 2 : 7. Why, I pray, are men to seek for it, if 
it is the inheritance of all ? It is easy to say, as some do, 
2 



4 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



that it is a " blessed" immortality we are to seek for : but 
that is an " adding" to God's word, as I think, that is un- 
warranted by any other portion of that blessed volume. 

" Mortality" occurs but once in the Bible ; 2 Cor. 5:4; 
and is an earnest desire of the righteous to have it " swal- 
lowed up of life." Paul, in Rom. 8:10, says, « If Christ 
be in you, the body is dead" (i. e. mortal, doomed to die,) 
because of sin; but the spirit is life" (why ? because the 
souls of men are immortal ? No ; but) " because of righte- 
ousness ;" clearly implying that it is the righteousness, or 
having Christ in them, that makes their spirits immortal. 
This is further evident from the next verse, where he as- 
sures them that their " mortal bodies" should be quicken- 
ed," i. e. be made immortal by the spirit of him who raised 
up Jesus from the dead. 

That the meaning of the term " quickened," in this text, 
is to be made immortal, will appear, if we consider, that if 
it signifies no more than the raising of the body from the 
dead, this will be done whether " the spirit of him that rais- 
ed up Jesus from the dead dwell in" them or not ; for 
" there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just 
and of the unjust." The difference is, the righteous rise to 
immortality, as Paul saith in 1 Cor. 15th chapter : but the 
wicked rise to be judged and condemned to the second 
death. And as by the first death they cease to be on earth ; 
so by the second death they cease to be in the Universe of 
God ; or are " destroyed forever." 

Man is said to be " corruptible," in opposition to the 
" zVzcorruptible God." See Rom. 1 : 23. Again; "They 
that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," not 
immortality. See Gal. 6 : 8. The wicked shall " utterly 
perish in their own - corruption." 2 Peter 2 : 12. 

Remarks. 

If the view I take of this subject be correct, then many 
portions of Scripture, which have been obscure on the com- 
mon theory, become clear, beautiful, and full of meaning 
and force. If men are really dying, according to the strict 
and literal meaning of that term, soul as well as body, or 
the whole man, then the language in which they are ad- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL 



15 



dressed is strictly calculated to awaken attention, and move 
their hearts. For example : " In him was life ; and the 
life was the light of men." Again : Men are represented 
as sitting " in darkness, and in the shadow of death i. e. 
death is so near them that his dark shadow is over them ; 
but Christ is " the true light, which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world thus showing them how to escape 
death. Again :. " The bread of God is he whicn cometh 
down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world — I am 
the bread of life. This is the bread that cometh down from 
heaven, that a man may eat thereof and NOT DIE." 

How natural and forcible these and similar texts are, on 
the supposition that man is actually dying . It takes not a 
scholar, or doctor of divinity, to see how appropriate the 
remedy to the disease. Men by sin have been cut off from 
the tree of life — they were starving, dying. Christ comes : 
the bread of life — the feast is spread ;— hungry, dying souls 
are invited, without money and without price. Come, eat 
and LIVE. If you stay away, you DIE. O, come to 
Christ and live — yea, live for ever, and not die. Amen. 



SE00ND DISCOURSE. 

"Ye shall not surely die." Gen. iii, 4. 

Our Saviour saith — " the devil is a liar and the father of 
it." He commenced his attack on our race by telling our 
first parents they should " not surely die," if they did dis- 
obey God. He was too successful in that game to have 
forgotten the lucky card ; he has played it round, in some 
form, on men, ever since he first swept Paradise with it. 
He told Eve, in her innocency, while holy, and in love with 
her Maker, that the God of love could not give place to 
such feelings as to cut them off from life if they did do 
what he had forbidden. He was successful, and he has 
never forgotten his success. True, he has turned his card 
since, but it is the same card still. It has still inscribed on 
it— « Ye shall not SURELY DIE." Now he makes use 



15 



EIELE EXAMINEE. 



of it, as I think, to insinuate that God does not love or pity 
man, seeing he has determined that man shall not die, but 
be kept alive in eternal consciousness, in undescribable tor- 
ments, for his sins. 

As the doctrine, " Ye shall not surely die," had its ori- 
gin with the old serpent, I cannot divest myself of the con- 
viction that the notion that wicked men will be kept eter- 
nally afrve in torments, and never die, had its origin from 
the same source, as it appears to be a perfect fac-simile ; and 
that it was invented to inspire hard thoughts of God, and 
keep men from turning to Him by repentance and faith, or 
confidence, and acknowledging their sins against the God 
of love. And I solemnly believe, this doctrine has kept 
more souls away from God, and driven them to the disbe- 
lief of all future punishment, or into infidelity, than any 
other doctrine that was ever promulgated. I am solemnly 
convinced that it has done more to destroy souls than all 
other errors put together. 

Multitudes, without any proper reflection upon the claims 
of God's law, have rejected all future punishment, because 
of the nature of that which the " orthodox," as they are 
called, say is to be inflicted ; whilst others have lived and 
died in real infidelity, or what has been called so, because 
they could not believe that a Being whose word declares 
that he " is love," could inflict such punishment on even 
the worst and most bitter of his enemies. 

I shall attempt to show you that the death which is the 
wages of sin is nut immortality in misery, but an actual 
extermination of being. I say, then, in opposition to the 
old serpent, if men do not come to Christ, that they may 
have life, they shall surely die — past hope, past recovery. 

Let me here briefly call attention to the question at issue. 
It is not whether men can be immortal, nor whether the 
righteous will be immortal, but will the conscious being of 
the wicked be eternal ? or is the punishment of the wicked 
interminable being in misery ? or destruction of being } 

I use the term immortal, in these discourses, in its com- 
monly received meaning ; i. e. according to Grimshaw, " ex- 
empt from death;" and according to Walker, "never to 
die — never ending, perpetual." 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



If 



fn my first discourse, I had brought the subject down to 
file inquiry, 

s 

What are the terms employed to denote the 
punishment of the wicked. 

Are they such as can, by any fair construction of lan- 
guage, be made to mean that the wicked have eternal con- 
scious being in misery ? Let us keep in mind, that words 
are not to be so explained as to mean more than their pri- 
mary signification, without an obvious necessity : though 
they may, and often do, signify less. 

Previous to the examination of those terms which relate 
to the punishment of wicked men, I would say, they are 
not punished till after the judgment of the great day ; but 
are reserved to that day to be punished. Thus " God spared 
not the angels that sinned, but delivered them into chains 
of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." And " the 
Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of 
judgment to be punished." 2 Peter 2 : 4-9. And again, 
Job 21 : 30. " The wicked is reserved unto the day of de- 
struction." And Nahum 1:2." The Lord reserveth wrath 
for his enemies." Jude 6. " He hath reserved unto the 
judgment of the great day." 

The terms employed are — Perish — Utterly perish — Ut- 
terly consumed with terrors — Destroy — Destroyed — Des- 
troyed for ever — Destruction — To be burned — Burned UP 
with unquenchable fire — Burn them up, that it shall leave 
them neither root nor branch — Perdition — Die— Death- 
Second death, fyc. 

Let us now begin with the first of these terms, viz. : — 
" Perish." Grimshaw, in his Etymology, says it signifies, 
" to cease to have existence — to die — to decay." 

Which of these definitions is suited to convey the idea 
of eternal conscious being ? Can that which is never to 
cease, be said to be decaying ? Can that which has inter- 
minable life be said " to die ?" Can that which is always 
to continue in being, be said " to cease to have existence 
I need not pursue that inquiry ; it is a " self-evident truth," 
that however the term perish may be used, in an accommo- 
dated sense, to signify something less than an actual ceas- 
2* 



18 



BIBLE EXAMINEE, 



ing to be, it is even then borrowed from its primary signifi- 
cation, and must be restored to it when there is not a known 
necessity for departing from it. In the case under conside- 
ration, there can be no such necessity, unless it can first be 
proved that the wicked are immortal. 

Paul, in 1 Cor. 15 : 1 8, says— « Then," (if Christ be not 
raised,) " they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are per- 
ished." What ! in eternal conscious being in hell tor- 
ments ! The supposition is so absurd that my opponents 
admit that the term perish here means " to cease to be." 
By what twist of language can they ever make it mean any- 
thing else, when spoken of the final state of the lost ? 
Though the term is often used to denote something less 
than an actual ceasing to be, it does not therefore follow that 
it is used to mean something far greater and more horrible. 
To apply this term to an eternal state of conscious being 
in misery, is to force a sense upon it which is not warranted 
by God's word. 

Let us keep constantly in mind that the whole family of 
man, by birth, have no access to the tree of life, conse- 
quently were perishing, were dead to immortality. Now 
look at the following texts : 

" God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but 
have everlasting life." Here everlasting life is the opposite 
of perishing. I pray, is everlasting being in misery the 
opposite of everlasting life ! The wicked, upon that view, 
have as really everlasting life as the righteous, though un- 
der different circumstances. 

" For we," saith an apostle, " are unto God a sweet savor 
of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish* 
To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to 
the other of life unto life." 

Here perishing and life are put in opposition, and the 
term perish is explained by the apostle himself, to mean 
death, and not life in misery. 

I need not quote all the passages where this term is em- 
ployed to express the final doom of the wicked, in which it 
is evident we are to receive it in its primary meaning, and 
no other* Before I leave this term, however, I must call 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 19 

your attention to one fact, and that is — in the Acts of the 
Apostles, the very place where we should expect to find, if 
anywhere in the Bible, the doctrine of eternal conscious 
being in torments, because the apostles were addressing 
sinners, there is not a particle of evidence to support the 
common theory. On the contrary, the views I maintain are 
most clearly set forth by Paul, in the 13th chapter, in a dis- 
course to the " blaspheming" Jews, telling them that they 
judged themselves " unworthy of everlasting life," and add- 
ing — "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish" 
What an excellent occasion had the apostle to have aroused 
the Jews by the common theory, had he believed it ! 

Look at that chapter, and you will see, if there ever was 
a time in which the apostle was called to deal plainly, it 
was then. I ask if any preacher of our days, who believes 
in the immortality of the wicked, in preaching to such 
hardened sinners as the apostle addressed, contents him- 
self with such language as the apostle here used ? No. 
They first describe the misery of the sinner in hell, and 
then, with the strongest figures they can produce, go on to 
give an idea of its duration, which, after all, they cannot 
find language to describe. The apostle did no such thing. 
There is not a particle of evidence of it in all his preaching 
and writings. 

" Die" and " Death." 

These terms primarily signify, "To perish — to come 
to nothing — the extinction of life." Hence, when these 
terms are applied to the soul, in regard to the final result 
of a course of sin, we ought to have good evidence that 
they are not to be understood in their primary meaning, 
before we depart from that interpretation ; especially, before 
we fix upon them a sense so contrary to their proper signi- 
fication as that of endless life, or being in torments. 

The apostle, in Rom. 1 : 32, speaking of certain wicked 
characters, says — " Who, knowing the judgment of God, 
that they that commit such things are worthy of death," 
<fec. In the 2d chapter, 5th verse and onwards, he speaks 
"of the righteous judgment of God," when "wrath" will 
be visited on the wicked ; and the death spoken of is ex- 



20 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



pressly called " perish"-ing, as the result of the " indigna* 
tion and wrath" with which the wicked will be visited " in 
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus 
Christ." Death, then, as the apostle explains it, when ap- 
plied to the punishment of the wicked at the judgment, is 
to " perish." 

" The soul that sinneth it shall die," refers to its final 
doom. This will appear if we consider, men will die, i. e. 
leave this world, or state of being, whether they sin or not. 
Nor can it refer to a violent leaving this world, as some 
suppose ; for all sinners do not die a violent death. I con- 
clude, then, that it relates to the soul's final doom. 

« As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way 
and live ; turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ?" evidently 
looks to the same result, the final destiny of the wicked. 
Life and death are put in opposition : not life and conscious 
being in misery, but simple life and death, without any 
qualifying terms to lead any one to suspect that they are to 
be understood any other way than in their most obvious 
meaning ; and I cannot but think, if you were to put the 
Bible into the hands of a person who had never heard a 
word of explanation, he would so understand it. 

Lest I should, in the present discourse, take up too much 
time in the examination of these terms, I will pass over the 
remainder of them till another time. 

Having, as I think, established the point that the wicked 
are not immortal, I might leave it to the believer in the op- 
posite theory to prove his position from the Bible, and pur- 
sue the subject no further. I shall not, however, shrink from 
meeting the supposed objections to my view. 

Objections Examined. 
r The objections do not arise from any positive proof ir 
the Bible that the wicked are immortal, but from circum 
stantial evidence, drawn from expressions used in reference 
to the punishment of the impenitent. The first objection 
I shall notice is founded on the case of the " rich man," 
who died and lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments, 
&c. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL. 



21 



By facts as well as parables the Bible communicates in- 
struction. In order to a right understanding of the speaker 
or writer, we should first inquire what was the object in 
view, or the instruction intended to be imparted. This we 
can only learn from the text, context, or comparing it with 
other portions of revelation. 

There appear to have been several points intended to 
be impressed upon the people, by our Saviour, in the text 
now under consideration ; and the instruction is the same 
whether it be considered a parable or history of facts. We 
will try to bring out some of the principal points that ap- 
pear in this text — and 

1. It seems designed to show the folly and danger of 
trusting in riches. The changeabieness of the affairs of 
this life had been shown in the first part of this chapter ; 
they had also been cautioned to make a right use of the 
things of this world, and told that they could " not serve 
God and mammon." The Pharisees, who were covetous, 
derided him, i. e., laughed at him, mocked him, and turned 
what he said to ridicule. Our Saviour, after rebuking them, 
enforces what he had said, by introducing two persons, viz: 
a Rich man and a Poor man. Look at them — 

The Rich man was what most men would call a genteel 
liver 5 living in good style, a prosperous and happy man. 
But, mark. — He dies — the next he finds of himself, he is 
in " torments." — His riches, splendor, sumptuous fare, and 
rich dresses have all, all fled. Who does not see in his 
case the danger of riches and the folly of trusting in them. 
But the picture is made more striking by introducing 

The Poor man. — He had no home — no food — doubtless 
poorly clothed, covered with " sores ;" instead of many 
physicians he had " dogs" for his medical aid. But, he 
dies. The next he finds of himself he is unspeakably 
" comforted his " evil things" have passed away for ever. 
Who does not see, in a clear light, the dangerous tendency 
of worldly possessions ? Few persons can have them with- 
out indulging in an extravagance in dress, equipage, and 
food, which is ruinous to their souls ; or, which is equally 
fatal, making their happiness to consist in contemplating 
the largeness of their earthly treasures. 



22 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



I consider this to be the main point designed to be illus- 
trated — the folly and danger of seeking our good in this life. 
There are other points, viz : 

2. To expose the deception common among the Jews, 
that they should be saved because they were the children of 
" Abraham." 

3. That this life is the only time to secure salvation — 
and the certainty of perishing without hope, if this period 
is neglected. 

4. The sufficiency of the means now employed to turn 
men to God — and hence, the folly of supposing that some 
other means would be more effectual. They would not be 
" persuaded though one rose from the dead." 

But does this prove what is to be the punishment unto 
which the " rich man" is reserved ? Certainly not. What 
that will be we are taught elsewhere in the Bible. This 
case, then, makes nothing against the theory I advocate. 

I will next examine the language of our Lord, " Their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."^ It is said 
this proves the soul immortal. I remark — 

First. Whatever this punishment is, it is put in opposi- 
tion to " life." " If thy hand" or " foot offend thee, cut it 
off; it is better for thee to enter halt" or « maimed into life, 
than having two hands" or " feet," &c, " where the worm," 
&c. Who does not see that here is the opposite of life, and 
therefore is death, or utter extinction of being without pos- 
sibility of escape ? In a parallel passage, our Saviour saith, 
" If thy right eye" or " hand offend thee, cast it from thee ; 
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should 
perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into 
hell." Here the " worm that dieth not, and the fire" that 
" is not quenched," we see, is another form of expression 
for perishmg. 

Again, I remark, this expression of our Lord is a quota- 
tion from Isaiah 66 : 24, and is applied to the " carcasses" 
of " men," which I presume my opponents will not pretend 
were immortal. But if the language in one place proves 
immortality, why not in the other ? Then we shall have 
immortal carcasses as well as immortal souls. 

Once more, I observe. If the fire were quenched, they 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



23 



would not be utterly consumed, but something would re- 
main — there would not be an entire destruction. It is mani- 
fest to every mind, if a fire is quenched or put out, the 
work of utter destruction is arrested, and something is left 
of the object upon which the fire kindled. The same may 
be said, if the worm die the carcase will not be consumed ; 
but as the fire is not to be quenched, nor the worm die, 
therefore, they shall be utterly consumed, perish, cease to 
be found in the universe of God. The objector says, the 
idea of an unquenchable fire is, that it is never to go out. 
To show the fallacy of this, I will suppose my house is on 
fire. When my neighbours arrive to my help, I say, effort 
is useless — the fire is unquenchable. Pray, what do I 
mean ? That the fire will burn eternally ? Any school- 
boy knows I mean simply the house will be totally con- 
sumed. " Yes," says the objector, « that is true when the 
expression is applied to that which is consumable, but this 
is not the case with the soul." To this, I reply, That is 
the very point to be proved — that the soul is not consuma- 
ble or destructible. The objector says it is not, and I affirm 
that it is. 

If it is still maintained that " unquenchable fire" means 
" never to go out," I refer those persons to an examination 
of a few passages of God's word on that question. 2 Chron. 
34 : 25, " Because they have forsaken me, and burned in- 
cense unto other Gods, therefore my wrath shall be poured 
out upon this place, and shall not be quenched." Isa. 34 : 
9, 10, "And the land of Idumea shall become burning 
pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day : the smoke 
thereof shall go up for ever." Jeremiah 7 : 20, " Behold, 
mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this 
place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the 
field, and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn, 
and shall not be quenched." Also, Jer. 17 : 27, "Then 
will I kindle a fire in the^ gates thereof, and it shall devour 
the places of Jerusalem, and shall not be quenched." Once 
more. See Ezekiel 20 : 47, 48, " Say to the forests of the 
South, Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord 
God, Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour 
every green tree in thee, and every dry tree ; the flaming 



24 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



flame shall not be quenched ; and all flesh shall see that I. 
the Lord, have kindled it • it shall ikot be q,uexched." 

Now, I wish to know if any man in his senses will pre- 
tend that all these fires that shall not be quenched are " ne<= 
ver to go out," in the strict sense of the term eternal? 
Does not any one see that so long as the things upon which 
the fire kindles are not proved to be immortal, the most ex- 
treme sense that can be fixed upon is, that there will be a 
total and irrecoverable destruction of them I 

The objector's next resort is to our Lord's description of 
the final judgment. " And these shall go away into ever- 
lasting (eternal) punishment." Of course, says the objector, 
they must eternally be, to have the punishment eternal. 

This is probably the strongest argument in favour of the 
supposed immortality of the wicked. Let us then inquire 
in what sense the term eternal is here to be understood ? 
The same term is applied to the judgment itself in Heb. vi. 
2, " Eternal judgment." Does this mean that the judg- 
ment will be eternally going on and never completed ? or 
does it mean the final judgment ? the judgment from which 
there is no appeal ? and the results of which will be eter- 
nal ? So I conceive " eternal punishment" signifies the final 
punishment: — a punishment from which there is no appeal 
— from which there is no recovery — and the results of 
which are eternal. 

Here I am asked, " May not eternal life, upon the same 
principle, be called eternal because the results of it are eter- 
nal ?" I answer, it could not be called eternal life if it is 
ever to be succeeded by death. Therefore it would be a 
palpable contradiction to say the results of a thing are eter- 
nal which never had an existence. I admit that the results 
of eternal life are eternal ; for the very idea of life is con- 
sciousness, and stands opposed to cessation of being. If the 
text under consideration had simply said of the righteous, 
These shall enter into everlasting rewards, I grant it might 
possibly bear the construction my opponent thinks deduci- 
ble from my principles of interpretation, unless some other 
portion of the Bible clearly showed that the righteous are 
to be immortal ; but that they are immortal is clearly and 
positively affirmed in the Scriptures. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 25 

Now let us inquire what is that punishment which is 
eternal ? The apostle tells us in the first chapter of 2d 
Thess.. « Who shall be punished with an everlasting de- 
struction FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD," 
&c. Too filthy to be in the sight of a holy God, as they 
eternally must be if immortal, he destroys them out of his 
presence, purifies his universe from the filth of sin and sin- 
ners, thus fully accomplishing the work for which Christ 
was « manifested." 

Some tell us that " destruction from the presence of the 
Lord," &c. means only that the wicked will be put away 
from the place where God's favourable presence is enjoyed, 
and the glorious manifestations of his power are seen. In 
reply, I would say, if that is the meaning of the text, can 
the objector show that the punishment of the wicked will 
be any thing more after the judgment, or different from what 
it was before in regard to the soul. He will not pretend that 
men who die in their sins are in the favourable presence of 
God before the judgment, and I have already shown that 
they are reserved unto the judgment to be punished ; it is 
then that they are to have " everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord," &c. I leave the candid to judge 
whether my opponent's construction or mine is the most 
natural. 

It is said that " The terms employed to denote the bliss 
of the righteous and the misery of the wicked are the same." 
I suppose what the objector means is, that the qualifying 
terms, or the terms which denote the durability of the one 
are used also in reference to the other ; for certainly he 
cannot mean that " life" and " death" are the same terms. 

I admit the qualifying terms are the same. But what has 
the objector gained ? Does he not see that our Lord has 
introduced a contrast ? " The righteous into life eternal," 
the wicked " into eternal punishment." I ask if eternal 
life in misery is the opposite of eternal life simply ? To 
make the contrast perfect, on the theory I oppose, it should 
read, or by fair inference bear this construction — These 
shall go away into an eternal life of punishment, but the 
righteous into an eternal life of happiness. Instead of this, 
the punishment is a simple contrast with life, and the fair 
3 



26 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



inference is, that it is death, without a possibility of re 
covery. That, I say, is the fair inference, unless you can 
prove their souls are immortal. 
But again — 

To this objection, I reply, the same terms are employed 
to denote the durability of God, and some portions of this 
earth. " Everlasting God" — " Everlasting mountains." 
What would be thought of me if I should undertake to 
prove from this that the world will never have an end ? — 
The texts quoted prove that the mountains are as eternal 
as God himself, just as much as the expressions denoting 
the durability of the bliss of the righteous and the punish- 
ment of the wicked prove that the conscious being of the 
latter is parallel with that of the former. 

What is the scripture argument that the mountains will 
not endure as long as God endures ? The Bible declares 
expressly that God is the " King eternal, immortal" — and 
it as expressly declares, that " The earth shall be melted, 
and the works that are therein shall be burned up so that 
the everlasting mountains will be destroyed, while the ever- 
lasting God still endures without end. 

Now what is the Scripture argument that the righteous 
and the wicked are not equally immortal ? The Bible ex- 
pressly declares that the righteous " put on immortality" — 
that they have " eternal life" and it as expressly declares 
that the wicked Christ will "burn up ;" yea, that the Lord 
of Hosts " shall burn them up," so that they shall be left 
" neither root nor branch" — that they shall die — be destroy- 
ed forever — perish — utterly perish, &c. 

If I wanted to make infidels, I would still maintain that 
the wicked will have an eternal conscious being, in the face 
of God's express declarations, like those above. When a 
" Thus saith the Lord" can be produced, that as expressly 
asserts the immortality of the wicked, as the language above 
does their extermination, then I may review the whole af- 
fair ; but that cannot be done, in my judgment. 

Another text, on which much reliance is placed, to sup- 
port the common theory, is Jude 7th. « Sodom and Go- 
morrah, and the cities about them, in like manner giving 
themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 27 

are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eter- 
nal fire. 

Let us compare Scripture with Scripture. Peter, in his 
second epistle, gives us an account of this same matter. — 
He says, « If God spared not the angels that sinned, but 
cast them down to hell — to be reserved unto the judgment ; 
and spared not the old world, but saved Noah — a preacher 
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the ungodly ; 
and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, 
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ex- 
ample to those who after should live ungodly," &c. 

Thus Peter throws light on Jude. Both together show 
most clearly what displeasure God has manifested against 
sinners in the invisible world, and in this. It is concerning 
what has been done in this world, we are here told, that 
God has made an example to those who should after live 
ungodly. 

These judgments inflicted on the old world, Sodom and 
Gomorrah, are a standing, and perpetual, or " eternal" ad- 
monition, warning, or " example" to all men to the end of 
the world, that live ungodly ; but it proves nothing as to 
what will constitute that punishment unto which they are 
expresvsly said, in this very connection, " to be reserved" 
and which is to be inflicted at the day of judgment ; which 
day is to be a day of " perdition of ungodly men." And 
as perdition signifies destruction, the natural inference is, 
that the wicked will be utterly destroyed with an " ever- 
lasting destruction." 

Concluding Remarks. 

In my own mind the conclusion is irresistible, that the 
final doom of all the impenitent and unbelieving, is that 
they shall " utterly perish" — that they shall be « destroyed 
forever" — that their " end" is to be " burned up, root and 
branch," with " fire unquenchable" — that they shall be cast 
into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second 
death — that they shall not have everlasting life, or being, 
but be "punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord" — that the universe of God will be 
purified not only from sin, but sinners— that " the works of 



23 BIBLE EXAMINER. 

the devil" will be destroyed, exterminated ; but " blessed 
and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection ; on 
such the second death hath no power." Then there will 
be a " new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and 
the first earth have passed away." " And God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow nor crying ; neither shall there be any 
more pain ; for the former things have passed away." 

The day when these tremendous scenes will transpire, 
I conceive, "ismigh, even at the doors." Yes, the time is- 
at hand, when the wrath of God will be revealed from 
Heaven — a day, described by the apostle, of "indignation 
and wrath ; tribulation and anguish upon every soul of 
man that doth evil." Then they that have "sinned without 
law shall also perish without law ;" and a not less fearful 
doom awaits those that have sinned in the light of the law 
and gospel both. 

That awful day will soon overtake us ; and who may 
abide the day of his coming ? Behold, that day " shall 
burn as an oven ; and all the proud, and all that do wick- 
edly will be stubble :" as incapable of resisting that wrath, 
that shall come upon them, as stubble is to resist the de- 
vouring flame. 

Let us be wise now, therefore, and prepare to meet God. 
" Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the 
way when his wrath is kindled but a little." " But blessed 
are all they that put their trust in him." 



THIRD DISCOURSE. 

' " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
they are they that testify of me ; and ye will not come unto me that ye 
might have Z?/e." John v. 39, 40. 

Some translate this text, " Ye do search the Scriptures," 
&c. It makes very little difference which way it is under- 
stood, whether as a command of what should be done, or as 
a declaration of what was done. Either way, it shows the 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



29 



immense value of the Scriptures, because they reveal eter- 
nal life; and it shows, too, that the object they had in 
searching, was to learn about eternal life — not a happy 
eternal life — a blissful eternal life — but eternal life, simply. 
And further, it shows that the Scriptures are the proper 
place to search for that inestimable blessing. Every man is 
bound to do this for himself, and not trust to his teachers 
alone, as I fear too many do. 

Teachers may be good men — honest men 5 they may in- 
tend to lead the people into truth, and preserve them from 
error ; yet they are but men — fallible men, and may " err 
not knowing the Scriptures 5" and besides, it is possible 
they may be bad men, who may have some other object in 
view than to " save souls from death 5" but if this is not 
the case, and they are sincere, still it must be recollected, 
we have all received our education, from the first dawnings 
of intellect, under an influence that has necessarily given 
©ur minds a bias to a particular theory, or mode of inter- 
preting the Scriptures ; that mode may be right, or it may 
be wrong ; be it which it may, our teachers themselves have 
most likely had their opinions formed by it, and will teach 
it ; but they cannot give an account for us to God ; every 
man must give an account of himself. 

It will avail us nothing, at the judgment, to plead that 
our teachers taught us so, — or, that ecclesiastical bodies 
decreed or established such a belief, or articles of faith. It 
will roll back in thunder tones in our ears — "Every one 
must give an account of himself to God." " You had the 
Scriptures, and the injunction to search them — and if you 
have erred to the ruin of your soul through false teaching, 
you have done it with the words of eternal life in your 
hands 5 but which you have trusted others to interpret for 
you, instead of giving that application of your own minds 
to the subject which it was your duty to do, instead of be- 
ing absorbed by the things of time." 

Would not such words be dreadful words in our ears at 
the great judgment day ? Should we not then fully realize 
the truth of that Scripture which saith, " Cursed be the man 
that trusteth in man ?" 

Teachers may be helps to understand the Scriptures, but 
3* 



30 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



should never be trusted as infallible guides ; nor should 
they ever be allowed to decide authoritatively for us, what 
the true meaning of God's word is. Any such attempt on 
the part of teachers, is a manifest usurpation of the pre- 
rogative of Jehovah, and should always be resisted. Let 
teachers in religion keep to their appropriate work ; which 
is not to be " lords over God's heritage," but to be " helpers," 
and " ensamples to the flock." They are not to decide who 
are heretics and who are orthodox, but to show men their 
sins — their perishing, dying condition, and point them to 
Christ, the great Physician, that they may " have life." 

The expression of our Lord — " Ye will not come unto 
me that you might have life," shows that men are exposed 
to death. The only question, with us, in these discourses, 
is, to deside what that death is : — whether it is eternal life in 
misery, or destruction of being. My position is, that it is 
the latter ; and I have endeavoured to establish that point 
from the Scriptures. How far I have been successful in my 
attempt, others will judge for themselves. No man can be- 
lieve without evidence. Some, it is true, will not believe 
whatever the evidence might be, unless they could find the 
thing proposed for belief was likely to be popular. But no 
one need calculate on popularity who sets himself to follow 
truth wherever it may lead him. Our Lord himself " was 
despised and rejected of men." 

In my last discourse, I had brought down my examina- 
tion of objections nearly to the close of the Bible. What 
remains for me to do, is, in the first place, to finish that 
examination ; then, I shall take up objections from other 
sources ; after which, I shall sustain my position by a mass 
of Scripture testimony not yet introduced but in part. 

Examination or Scripture Objections Continued. 

The next objection I shall notice, grows out of Rev. 14 : 
9 to 11. This text has, I believe, almost universally been 
applied to the final punishment of the wicked. If it did so 
apply, it would prove nothing more than that the wrath 
poured upon them, is awful . and, that from its effects there 
is to be no recovery. But to prove the immortality of the 
soul from this text, two things must he established, viz. . 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



31 



That this is spoken of the punishment of the wicked in a 
future state ; and if so, that the phrase " for ever and ever," 
is to be understood in its primary sense. 

My own opinion is, that it relates to judgments inflicted 
in this world on Babylon. An angel had just cried, " Ba- 
bylon is fallen," &c. $ then follows the description referred 
to. But some say, Babylon means the whole wicked 
power ; and the destruction of all the wicked, in a future 
state, is brought to view. If so, then the presumption is 
greatly increased that the wicked are not immortal, from the 
fact that the Revelator says, in the 18th chapter, " She [Ba- 
bylon] shall be utterly burnt with fire ; and with violence 
shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall 
be found no more at all." 

God says in Isa. 34 : 10, of the land of Idumea, that it 
"shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched 
night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up forever." 
Surely, no one will pretend that this language proves, that 
the land of Idumea is immortal. But it does, just as truly 
as the text in Rev. proves the wicked are immortal ; and if 
that is admitted, then we may have not only immortal souls, 
and immortal carcasses, but immortal land ! But if this 
expression does not prove the land of Idumea immortal, so 
neither can it prove wicked men are immortal, — that must 
be proved from some other source; if that can be done, 
and the text is established to be speaking of the punish- 
ment of the wicked in a future state, then I admit that the 
language employed necessarily implies the perpetuity, or 
eternity, of conscious being in torments : but till those 
points are proved, I must still maintain that the wicked 
have no immortality. Though I might rest the argument 
here, and leave my opponent to the burden imposed upon 
him, I shall, nevertheless, now attempt to show that Rev. 
14 : 9 to 11, has its fulfilment on earth, and therefore is not 
spoken of the punishment of the wicked in a future state. 
Let us put down the text. 

" If any man worship the beast and his image, and re- 
ceive his mark in his forehead or his hand, the same shall 
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured 
out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and 



£2 



BIELE EXAMINEE. 



he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone (an evident 
allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah,) in the presence of the 
holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb : and the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, (an 
allusion to the smoke of the land of Idumea,) and they 
have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his 
image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." 

The inquiry is — Is this wrath poured out in this world, or 
the world to come ? In other words, Are the judgments 
here spoken of, inflicted on earth, or in the invisible world ! 

The Revelator proceeds to describe judgments about to 
be executed on the worshippers of the beast ; and he tells 
us, chap. 15, that he "saw seven angels having the seven 
last plagues : for in them is filled up the wrath of God — 
and one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels, 
seven golden vials full of the wrath of God." Immediately 
after this, at the 16th chapter, he says, "I heard a great 
voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go 
your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God 
upon the earth. And the first angel poured out his vial 
upon the earth ; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore 
upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon 
them which worshipped his image." How exactly does the 
judgment correspond with the threatening in the 14th 
chapter ! But look still further. 

" The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the Sun ; and 
power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And 
men were scorched with a great heat, and blasphemed the 
name of God, which hath power over these plagues ; and 
they repented not to give him glory." 

" And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat 
of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness ; and 
they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the 
God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and 
repented not of their deeds." 

Here, then, is a perfect fulfilment of the threatening found 
in the 14th chap. 9th to 11th verse; and the apostle ex- 
pressly tells us, it takes place " upon the earth." And if 
the term " forever and ever," in the text under consideration, 
is to be taken in its primary meaning, we shall be able to 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



S3 



prove that the " worshippers of the beast" will live eternally 
« upon the earth for that is where the " smoke of their 
torment ascendeth up forever and ever." 

I would here remark — That the judgment spoken of, in 
the text under consideration, cannot be the final punishment 
of the wicked ; because that is to be an everlasting destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord, and this is expressly 
said to be in the presence of the Lamb ; so that the two 
scenes, whatever they may be, are not one and the same, 
but different events, which could not be the case if the com- 
mon theory is correct. 

When I stated, as my opinion, that " destruction from 
the presence of the Lord" is to be understood according to 
the plain and obvious meaning, i. e. out of the presence of 
the Lord, or extinction of being, the objector said — " No — 
it means from his favourable presence." The text before 
us says, they shall be " tormented in the presence of the 
Lamb." Does that mean in his " favourable" presence ? 

I now follow the advocates of the eternal conscious being 
of the wicked to their last resort in the Bible, viz : Rev. 20: 
10, " The devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone 
— and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." 
In reply, I remark : 

Some of the most learned men, and men, too, who be- 
lieve in the common theory of the endless being of the 
wicked in torments, have represented that the " terms « ever- 
lasting,' 1 forever/ and the like, are uniformly used in the 
Scriptures to denote the longest possible duration of which 
the subject to which they are applied is capable." 

If this representation is correct, and I see no reason to 
dissent from it, then the text under consideration proves that 
the devil, and his associates in misery, are to be tormented 
during the whole period of their being : and of course cuts 
off restorationism ; but does by no means prove that Satan, 
or wicked men, are immortal $ on the contrary, we are' ex- 
pressly taught, Heb. 2:14, that Christ shall " destroy the 
devil." Not destroy the " happiness" of the devil — that is 
done already ; but his person, his being. Any other con- 
struction of the words, I conceive, is uncalled for and un- 
natural, unless it can first be shown that he is immortal. 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



It is further evident that the devils themselves expect to 
be destroyed. " Hast thou come to destroy us," said they 
to him who will finally do that work. In one place they 
say, m Hast thou come hither to torment us before the time ?" 
Both of these expressions show that the devils expect to be 
further tormented, and more awfully tormented, even with 
such anguish as shall result in their destruction : and how 
undescribably tremendous must be that wrath which shall 
utterly consume even a spirit ; a wrath so tremendous that 
even mighty angels utterly perish under it ! The wicked 
are to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second 
death 5 and are as truly and really destroyed as " death and 
hell." 

If it be said — " Cast into the lake of fire, this is the se- 
cond death," means not that they shall actually die ; but 
that being in the lake of fire is the second death, though 
they will never be burned up, I reply, such an interpretation 
contradicts the explicit testimony of God's word, which de- 
clares, the wicked shall be burned up. "The lake that 
burneth with fire and brimstone," is a phrase used to repre- 
sent the second death. It points out the awful anguish of 
a dying sinner in his last struggle for life. The expression 
may represent awful torments not resulting in death ; but 
here it is expressly said, " this is the second death which 
leaves no room to doubt of its meaning. 

If the phrase " second death," when applied to death and 
hell, signifies an utter extermination, as Dr. Adam Clark 
thinks, then I can see no good reason for denying that the 
same is the fate of the wicked, as the language employed is 
the same ; unless it can be first proved that the wicked are 
immortal from some other portion of the Bible than that 
which speaks of their punishment. The arguments used by 
my opponents to prove the eternal conscious being of the 
wicked, is drawn from the language which speaks of their 
punishment, or torments. And why do they infer, that this 
language proves the eternal conscious being of the wicked ? 
Because, say they, the soul is immortal ! That is the very 
point to be proved. Their argument, when put in form, 
stands thus : 

First proposition .-—The soul is immortal. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL. 35 



Infereiice: — The wicked will have eternal conscious 
being in misery. 

Second proposition ; — The wicked will have eternal con- 
scious being in misery. 

Inference : — Therefore the soul is immortal. 

Here an attempt is made to establish the truth of the 
first proposition by an inference drawn from that proposi- 
tion ; when the truth of that inference, itself, depends upon 
the truth of the first proposition. Hence it is evident that 
nothing can be proved in this way to sustain the doctrine 
of the immortality of the wicked. It is reasoning in a 
circle. 

Here, again, I refer to the language of Richard Watson, 
in his « Institutes." Though he believed in the eternal 
being of all souls, yet he says, vol. ii. page 250, the notion 
" that the soul is naturally immortal is contradicted by 
Scripture, which makes our immortality a gift, dependent on 
the will of the giver." And again, page 167 and 168, 2d 
volume, he calls the doctrine of the " natural immortality 
of the soul" an " absurdity." The question then is, does 
God " give" immortality to any but the " holy." My oppo- 
nents say, " Yes ;" and I answer No. " Blessed and holy is 
he who hath part in the first resurrection : on such the 
second death has no power T All others will experience 
it, and forever be cut off from immortality. 

Other Objections. 

Having examined every important text that I know of, 
relied upon in the Bible, to establish the common theory, 
I do not consider that my opponents have any claim upon 
me to answer other objections, not having their foundation 
in the Scriptures ; as the book of God is the onry infallible 
rule of faith. I have no fear, however, to loc k in the face 
objections from other sources, and shall notice all of them 
that have come within my knowledge. 

First, then, it is said, " The benevolence of God obliges 
him to inflict the greatest possible punishment, in order to 
deter men from sin." 

To say nothing of the absurdity of such a proposition, 
it is enough to reply that the common sense of every en- 



36 



EIBLE EXAMINER* 



lightened and Christianized people, as well as their practice, 
condemns such a view of benevolence. 

Suppose the Legislature of this State should pass a law, 
as they have done, condemning the murderer to death ; and 
suppose the judge, on the conviction of the criminal, should 
proceed to pronounce sentence, by saying — " You, the pri- 
soner, are clearly convicted of the crime specified in the 
law ; you are, therefore, to suffer the penalty of said law, 
which is, that you be tortured over a slow fire — and to pre- 
vent your dying, an able and skilful physician will stand 
by you, with powerful remedies, to prevent the fire from 
causing death $ but said fire is to be as terrible as it can 
possibly be made, and without intermission. In this man- 
ner you are to be tormented till death shall come upon you 
from some other cause ; which, however, should never take 
place if we possessed power to prevent it!" And then 
suppose the judge should add : — " That is the penalty of 
the law under which you are now to suffer tV 

I ask if all New York — yea, all the nation, and the civi- 
lized world would not be horror-struck by such a decision ? 
Would not all conclude the judge was insane, and ought 
to be immediately removed from office ? If he should at- 
tempt to justify himself, by showing that he had given a 
constitutional construction of the law of the State, would it 
not be thought that he was stark mad ? And if he should 
succeed in establishing his position of the correctness of his 
decision, would not the whole State be in arms to alter or 
abolish such laws ? and if they found that such a state of 
things was fastened upon them by some unalterable neces- 
sity, would not the State itself, with all its rich lands, be 
abandoned by its inhabitants, as some Sodom and Gomor- 
rah that was nigh unto destruction ? 

If the case I have supposed differs from that attributed 
to God's law, and the administration under it — upon the 
common theory of death signifying eternal conscious being 
in undescribable misery, then I confess myself incapable of 
seeing the difference, except it be in one point, viz. : the 
judge spoken of has not power to protract the sufferings 
of the condemned person beyond a limited period ; God 
has almighty and irresistible power in punishing. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



37 



If, as is contended, the greatest possible punishment is 
required by benevolence, to deter men from sin, why do we 
not see civilized nations adopting that principle in enacting 
their laws ? The fact is, the legislation of all nations who 
acknowledge the Bible, gives the lie to such a theory ! And 
how is it accounted for, I ask, that those nations, that are 
called " Christian nations," have so far modified their laws 
as to be at an almost infinite remove from those called sav- 
age ? Is it not because, though men have not in reality 
become Christians, yet the Bible has had such an influence 
on the mass of mind, that the conviction is almost univer- 
sal among them, that no " cruel or unusual punishments" 
shall be « inflicted ?" I ask again, if this fact does not 
prove that the influence of the gospel is against the common 
theory of eternal life in misery ? Or in other words, do 
not the principles of the gospel, carried out in practical life, 
give the lie to the theory I oppose ? 

Punishment in some form, to transgressors, all admit is 
requisite to maintain government. But let us inquire what 
is the design of punishment ? It may be said to consist 
mainly in two particulars, viz : 1st. To prevent the recur- 
rence of crime on the part of the transgressor ; and 2d. To 
deter others from the commission of crime. 

Let me now ask, Is it necessary that the impenitent sin- 
ner should live a life of eternal conscious misery, to prevent / 
the recurrence of sin on his part ? This will not be pre- 
tended by any one. So far from it, the advocates of the 
theory I oppose, maintain, that the sinner will be eternally 
sinning, and eternally being punished for those sins ; which, 
however, neither does nor can produce reformation ; nor, in 
fact, is it designed to. Upon the common theory, then, sin 
and the works of the devil never will be destroyed, and the 
punishment does not answer the end of punishment, in pre- 
venting the recurrence of crime ; for it will be eternally re- 
curring. But if the sinner is actually destroyed, and ceases 
to be, there is an effectual prevention of the recurrence of 
sin, on the part of the transgressor. 

If, then, the end of punishment is answered, so far as 
the sinner is concerned, by his utter destruction, and cannot 
be by the opposite theory, let us now inquire whether the 
4 



38 



BIBLE EXAMINEE, 



eternal conscious being of the sinner in torments is neces- 
sary to deter others from sin ? To suppose that it is, is to 
suppose that the inhabitants of Heaven are kept in subjec- 
tion to God, on the same principle that slave-holders keep 
their slaves to their toil, L e., by the terror of the lash, or 
some other fearful torture. No such principle, I apprehend, 
will be needed in the presence of God and the Lamb — and 
that, too, after our state of trial is over for ever, and the 
righteous are crowned with eternal life, and made kings 
and priests unto God, to reign for ever and ever, filled with 
unmeasured consolation, and surrounded by immeasurable 
glory. 

Besides, if the wicked are all destroyed, and mingle no 
more with the righteous for ever, the greatest temptation to 
sin is removed. The past recollection of evil would, most 
likely, be all-sufficient to prevent sin, even on the supposi- 
tion that it were possible for temptation to arise, which I 
do not believe it will be, when the righteous dwell in the 
immediate presence of God and the Lamb, where there is 
fulness of joy and pleasure for ever more. Surely there can 
be no need, to persons thus situated, to listen to the groans 
of the damned, and gaze on their torments, to keep them 
in obedience. The thought, to me, is little, if any, short 
of blasphemy. 

But, the notion that benevolence requires the greatest pos- 
sible punishment to be inflicted, is expressly contradicted 
by the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ informs us that some 
" shall be beaten with few stripes." Of course the greatest 
possible punishment is not inflicted, but only such as is ne- 
cessary to secure the honour of a violated law, and answer 
the end of government. 

It is said, « sin is an infinite evil, and therefore the sin- 
ner must have an infinite punishment." And I ask, if it 
may not be said, in an important sense, that that punish- 
ment, from which a sinner never recovers, is infinite ? But 
how is it proved that sin is an infinite evil, which is com- 
mitted by a finite being in time ? The answer is, it is com- 
mitted against an infinite God. I reply, that, upon the 
game principle, a punishment inflicted upon a finite being, 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL. 



39 



in a limited time, is an infinite punishment, because inflict- 
ed by an infinite Being. 

Again, it is objected to my views, that "it is no punish- 
ment at all." " If," continues the objector, « the wicked 
are to be struck out of being, it 's quick over, and that is 
the end of it." 

In reply, I say — I do not know how long the work of 
utter destruction will be in being accomplished. We know, 
in this world, some men die instantly, with little pain going 
before ; whilst others linger in distress a long time, and 
then die in the most undescribable pain. So it may be in 
the " second death." Some sinners, for reasons known to 
the divine mind, and which may be developed at the day 
of judgment, may perish at once ; whilst others, for their 
greater wickedness, may endure protracted torments, with 
increased marks of the Almighty's displeasure, such as 
shall clearly develope the meaning of our Lord's words, 
that he «« which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not 
himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten 
with many stripes," — whilst " he that knew not, and did 
commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few ;" 
but in both cases it will result in their utter destruction. 
Here the principle is distinctly brought to view, of a differ- 
ence in the degree of torment that will be inflicted on the 
finally impenitent. 

For example. A child, who has just arrived to the years 
of understanding, and has personally committed sin, dies 
impenitent. Is his punishment to be equal to that of a 
Voltaire ? The objector says, " No. The horror of Vol- 
taire will be the greatest." That is, he says, " The fire will 
be the same, but their worm will be different." But, if eter- 
nal conscious being in torment is the true doctrine, I ask, 
what is it gives the horror itself its keenness and point, but 
the fact that the torment is to be without cessation of con- 
scious being ? 

It matters but little to me, as to the anguish I feel, whe- 
ther my little finger is burning or my whole frame, if it is 
certain that the anguish I endure is never to cease. The 
common notion of the punishment of the wicked, I con- 
ceive, makes in fact no distinction in the punishment, whe- 



40 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



ther it be a child or an old sinner — a heathen or a sinner 
from a Christian land — a slave, brutalized by his master, 
and denied God's word, or that ungodly master himself. 
On the other hand, my view, whilst it admits that the result 
is the same to all, viz.: utter extinction of being, yet, the 
degrees of torment prior to that event and at the time in 
which it finally takes place, are various, according to the 
degrees of guilt of the transgressors. 

Henry, in his Commentary, says — " By the damnation 
of the wicked the justice of God will be eternally satisfy- 
ing, but never satisfied." 

This doctrine is undoubtedly correct, on the supposition 
that the common theory is true, but it represents God as 
incapable of satisfying his justice, or as wanting in a dis- 
position to do so. Either of these positions, one would sup- 
pose, is sufficiently absurd to be rejected by a reflecting 
mind. 

The penalty of God's law is something to be inflicted, 
or it is not ; if it is not to be inflicted, then men may not 
be punished at all for their sins ; but if it is to be inflicted 
on the impenitent, then it cannot be eternal conscious be- 
ing in misery ; for in that case, it would only be inflictmg- 
but never inflicted; indeed, in that way justice could not 
be said to be even satisfy ing ; for that cannot be said to be 
satisfying that is never to be satisfied ; that is a plain con- 
tradiction. Could a man be said to be satisfying his hun- 
ger if it was impossible ever to satisfy it ? Or again, is the 
" grave" satisfying , of which the wise man says, that it is 
" never satisfied ? " 

Benson outstrips Henry. So far from the justice of 
God making any approach towards satisfying itself, accord- 
ing to Benson, the sinner outstrips justice in the race. 
Speaking of the damned, he says : — « They must be per- 
petually swelling their enormous sum of guilt, and still 
running deeper, immensely deeper, in debt to divine and 
infinite justice, Hence, after the longest imaginable period, 
they will be so far from having discharged their debt — 
that they will find more due than when they first began to 
sufTer." 

How much glory such a theory reflects upon the infinite 



AHE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 41 



God, I leave others to judge. This same commentator says 
in another place— " Infinite justice arrests their guilty souls, 
and confines them in the dark prison of hell, till they have 
satisfied all its demands by their personal sufferings, which, 
alas ! they can never do." 

So, it seems, the Great and Infinite Being is perfectly in- 
capable of obtaining satisfaction to his justice ! But I will 
not dwell upon this point. 

I will call your attention to one thought more before I 
close this discourse. Are we to suppose that the Creator 
of all men will inflict a punishment on men of which he 
has given them no intimation ? For example — wicked 
men who have not revelation to unfold the invisible world. 
Are we to believe that they are to be punished with eternal 
conscious being in undescribable torments, of which they 
had never heard ? 

They have no intimation of eternal conscious being in 
misery. They know there is misery, for they experience 
it ; but they have always seen misery terminate in death. 
Of misery followed by death, they have something more 
than intimation ; but of eternal life in misery they can 
have no idea. No — nor can we, who have that doctrine 
taught us by ministers. We can have no idea of a life 
of misery that never results in death. We may have illus- 
trations given us, but they cannot touch it, and no finite 
mind can have any conception of it ; this is evident from 
the illustrations used to attempt to describe it ; for example 
— Benson, after painting the unutterable miseries of 
the damned, till his own soul chills with horror, and his 
« heart bleeds," thus attempts to describe the duration of 
that misery : 

" Number the stars in the firmament, the drops of rain, 
sand on the seashore ; and when thou hast finished the cal- 
culation, sit down and number up the ages of woe. Let 
every star, every drop, every grain of sand, represent one 
million of tormenting ages. And know that as many more 
millions still remain behind, and yet as many more behind 
these, and so on without end." 

Now I ask if any definite idea is conveyed to the mind 
by such an illustration ? And if not, what influence can 
4* 



42 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



it have upon him ? If it produces any action, it must be 
as lacking in definiteness as the ideas that possess the 
mind. 

Tell a man of something, concerning which he can form 
a definite idea, and it must have more influence upon him. 
Tell him he is dying, perishing— really, actually, literally, 
not figuratively perishing : of that he can form some idea, 
and hence, it will be more likely to move him to right ac- 
tion, than that of which he can have no such definite know- 
ledge. 

Concluding Remarks. 

I have endeavoured to establish the position, that men 
are perishing 5 in other words, that they are labouring un- 
der a fatal disease, that will result in death, or an utter ex- 
termination of being, unless it is removed. All men are 
dying. The death to which they are hastening is the effect 
of sin, and sin is the transgression of the law of their mo- 
ral nature, which will as certainly result in the death of 
the soul, as the violation of the law of our physical nature 
will result in the death of our body, unless that order can 
be restored which has been interrupted by these violations. 

In this view of the subject, we have a beautiful and for- 
cible parallel between the disorders of the body and those 
of the soul — -and between the attempts to heal the body, 
and the attempts to heal the soul, or save it alive. There 
are, it is true, quacks in both. I will not stop now to de- 
termine who they are in either case ; my business is to 
show unto men their disease and danger, or their sins, and 
the consequences to which they lead ; and then point them 
to the sure, the faithful, the kind and glorious Physician, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He 
came down from Heaven, and entered our moral graveyard, 
where souls are dying,and proclaimed Life — "ETERNAL 
LIFE." 

He calls us to believe in him. And what does this faith 
imply ? It implies, of course, that we feel we are morally 
diseased and dying. No man would ask or receive the aid 
of a physician who felt himself whole ; for " the whole 
need not a physician, but they that are sick." 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



43 



Again, faith in Christ, the great Physician, implies con- 
fidence in his ability to heal, or save the soul alive. No 
man employs a physician in whose skill he has no confi- 
dence. When a sick man finds one in whom he has per- 
fect confidence, he shows his faith in him something like 
this : " Doctor," he says, " I know you are a skilful prac- 
titioner, and I believe you perfectly understand my disor- 
der, and I wish you to undertake for me — I wish to put 
myself entirely under your care." "But," the doctor re 
plies, " I cannot heal you, unless you will strictly follow 
my directions ; no medicine, however valuable, and no phy- 
sician, however skilful, can restore health, and prolong life, 
if you persist in the violation of the laws of your physical 
nature ; you must therefore determine to give yourself en- 
tirely up to follow my directions, or you must die ; you can 
have your choice." 

Now, if the man consents to do this, he acts faith in that 
physician ; and when he gets well, he will doubtless give 
the doctor all the credit of his cure, and be very likely to 
recommend him to others. Now, that is faith, active faith. 
Go to Christ, the soul's Physician, in the same way, and 
your sins, which are the moral disease, will be removed, and 
your perishing, dying souls will be made alive — yes, have 
life, and live eternally : but, if you refuse the great Physi- 
cian, your souls must die — die past hope, past recovery — 
die under an awful weight of guilt — die eternally. But 
you do not die without a mighty effort on the part of Christ 
and his followers to save you. Jesus wept over dying men 
when here on earth ; and with all the compassion of the 
Son of God, in the most tender pity he said, in the lan- 
guage of my text : " Ye will not come unto me that ye 
might have life." — Shall the Saviour make this lamentation 
over any of you ? O, come to Christ and live. 



44 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



FOURTH DISCOURSE. 

" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thes. v. 21. 

" To « prove," in the sense of the text, signifies « to try 
— -to bring to the test." The apostle was far from adopting 
the theory of some, in the present day, who seem to think 
it evidence that a man is a heretic if he presumes to exam- 
ine for himself with regard to the truth of those theories 
which men, who have been in reputation for wisdom and 
piety, have seen fit to baptize as the true faith. They may 
have seen the truth clearly, or they may not. "Whether 
they have or not, it does not release us from the obligation 
of proving all things for ourselves. Not to do this, we 
might nearly as well have been constituted idiots ; as, in 
point of fact, we make ourselves so, by taking for truth, 
without investigation, the opinions of fallible men. 

We are not indeed to despise helps in our investigations : 
but every thing is to be brought to the test — the mfallible 
word of God. 

Nor are we to allow ourselves to think, as some seem to 
maintain, that we are to exercise a blind faith in a theory, 
however contrary to reason. Reason, it is true, cannot find 
out God, nor the things of God, unaided. — Hence God has 
been pleased to give us revelation ; and that revelation is 
made to man's reason, or understanding. To talk to a man 
about believing that which is contrary to his reason, is the 
most consummate folly. Is it possible for a man to believe 
that two and two make six ? or that unequal things are 
exactly equal ? To propose such absurdities for belief is to 
attempt to annihilate all tests of truth, and leave a man to 
wander in the mazes of conjecture. We hardly know which 
to pity most, the man who attempts such a work, or those 
who are duped by it. 

The fact is — God appeals to man's reason. " Come now 
and let us reason together, saith the Lord." The disciples 
"communed together, and reasoned." See Luke 24 : 15. 
Acts 17 : 2, we are told, "Paul, as his manner was — 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 45 

reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." And 18 chap. 
4 v., " He reasoned in the synagogues every Sabbath, and 
persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." Before Felix he 
" reasoned" till his royal hearer « trembled." 

We may rest assured, then, that God has given us our 
reason to be used : and we are commanded to be ready to 
give a reason of the hope that is in us. 

There may be many truths that reason can never find 
out ; hence the necessity of revelation ; but revelation can 
contain nothing contrary to reason — that is impossible ; for, 
I repeat it, it would be no revelation at all, but darkness 
and obscurity itself. Reason then occupies an important 
place. It is its province to judge of the truth of that which 
professes to be a revelation ; if that professed revelation is 
clearly contrary to reason, no man can credit it but a rank 
fanatic : It is to confound truth and falsehood, and take 
away all power of discriminating between them. 

Reason, however, is to be allowed to do her work un- 
trammeled. Reason may be blinded. There is no way in 
which it is so likely to be perverted as by the love of sin. 
If men are in love with sin, and are determined to persist 
in it, they may expect to reason incorrectly — though their 
decisions, in that case, can hardly be said to be the voice of 
reason ; it is rather the voice of passion, or appetite ; for, 
even in such cases, the strife of reason, to be heard, is easily 
discovered, if a man will observe the workings of his own 
mind. But, our Saviour has decided that the man who 
" will do" the will of God, i. e. has a purpose, or determi- 
nation, to do that will, wherever it may lead him, " he shall 
know of the doctrine." — Before reasoning, then, we should 
see to it that we have that purpose : else we may go astray. 

With these remarks, I proceed to a further examination 
of objections to the theory I advocate. If those objection? 
are reasonable, and the unreasonableness of them cannot be 
shown, then you are bound to "hold" them "fast," as 
" good." If they are to your mind shown to be without 
reason, as well as without Scripture authority, you are 
equally bound to give them up. 



46 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



Examination of Objections Continued. 

It is said, "the fathers believed in the endless torments 
of the wicked." In reply, I remark, Our Lord and Master 
has prohibited my calling any man father. But, if the fa- 
thers, as they are called, did believe that doctrine, they 
learned it from the Bible, or they did not. If they learned 
it there, so can we. If they did not learn it from the Bible, 
then their testimony is of no weight. It may have been 
an error that early got into the Church, like many others. 

Mosheim, in his Church History, tells us, as early as the 
third century, that the defenders of Christianity, in their 
controversies, « degenerated much from primitive simpli- 
city," and that the maxim which asserted the innocence of 
defending truth by artifice and falsehood, "contributed" to 
this degeneracy. And he adds : — 

" This disingenuous and vicious method of surprising 
their adversaries by artifice, and striking them down, as it 
were, by lies and fictions, produced, among other disagree- 
able effects, a great number of books, which were falsely 
attributed to certain great men, in order to give these spu- 
rious productions more credit and weight; for, as the 
greatest part of mankind are less governed by reason than 
authority, and prefer in many cases, the decisions of falli- 
ble mortals to the unerring dictates of the divine word, the 
disputants, of whom we are speaking, thought they could 
not serve the truth more effectually than by opposing illus- 
trious names, and respectable authorities to the attacks of 
its adversaries." 

This practice spoken of by Mosheim, increased as the 
darker ages rolled on ; and through these dark ages, w 7 hat 
there are of the writings of the " fathers" have come down 
to us. It is a truth, also, that the practice of corrupting 
the simplicity of the apostolic doctrine was commenced 
much earlier than the third century. Enfield, in his phi- 
losophy, says : " The first witness of Christianity had 
scarcely left the world when" this work began. Some of 
the "fathers" seemed intent on uniting heathen philosophy 
with Christianity, and early commenced the practice of 
clothing the doctrines of religion in an allegorical dress. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



47 



You may judge, what dependence can be placed upon 
the " fathers" in settling what is Bible truth. 

Again it is said, — The Jews held the doctrine of eternal 
conscious being in torments. This is proved, not from their 
Scriptures, the place where it should be found, if true, but 
from the writings of Josephus. 

The same may be urged against the infallibility of some 
things found in Josephus, as in the " fathers for it is cer- 
tain, as I have before shown, that there was a$arge class 
among the Jews that did not believe it ; viz. the Sadducees, 
who did not believe in the existence of spirits at all, and of 
course could not have held to their eternal conscious being 
in torments. 

But what if the Jews did believe it ? They believed too 
that the Messiah would set up a temporal kingdom ; and 
" many other such like" foolish things. Are we to go to 
their ignorance and superstition to learn the knowledge of 
the Most High ? The fact is, the Jewish Scriptures, the 
Old Testament, no where teach that doctrine. 

My attention will be called to Isa. 33 : 14. « Who 
among us shall dwell with devouring fire ? who among us 
shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?" This looks the 
most like teaching that doctrine of any thing in the Old 
Testament. But the text itself refutes the theory it is 
brought to prove ; for it tells us, expressly, the fire is a 
devouring fire. What is the meaning of the term " devour ?" 
According to Walker, it signifies " To eat up" — - " to con- 
sume" — " to annihilate." Surely then, my opponents gain 
nothing from this text, for it is wholly in my favour. 

Besides, such questions often imply the impossibility of 
a thing ; e. g. " How shall we escape if we neglect so great 
salvation ?" i. e. There is no escape. So — "Who shall 
dwell with devouring fire ?" implies the impossibility of 
any person doing it, as it will utterly destroy, or consume 
him. I will give the objector one text from the Old Tes- 
tament, that he may weigh along with this. It is Ps. 92 : 
7, " When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all 
the workers of iniquity do flourish ; it is that they shall be 
DESTROYED FOREVER." I have said, the Jewish 
Scriptures no where teach the common theory ; so far from 



48 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



it, they wind up with the most solemn declaration, calling 
the attention of all men to the fact, " Behold, the day 
cometh that shall burn as an oven : and all the proud, yea, 
all that do wickedly, shall be stubble ; and the day that 
cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it 
shall leave them neither root nor branch." 

But suppose I were to admit, that the Jews did hold the 
doctrine of endless being in misery, as my opponents say : 
what then^ Why, say they, that is strong evidence it must 
be true ; because, if it had not been, the Saviour and his 
apostles would have taught the contrary. , 

I reply, first : Many of the Jews believed in the pre- 
existent state of souls : or, their existence in some other 
body prior to those they now inhabit. It was owing to this 
idea, that we find the disciples of our Lord, in John 9 : 2, 
asking him, " Who did sin, this man or hi? parents, that 
he was born blind ?" This question shows, that even the 
apostles had imbibed the notion common among the Jews 
at that time. They supposed that in some previous state 
he might have sinned 5 and hence, as a judgment, was born 
blind. Does not the same reasoning which says, the Jews 
believed in the eternal conscious being of the wicked in 
misery, and therefore" it must be true, because the Saviour 
did not refute it, prove that the doctrine of the transmigra- 
tion of souls is true, because the Jews believed it, and our 
Saviour did not refute it ? 

But again, — I maintain, that Christ and his apostles did 
teach the contrary of endless being in misery ; and that, 
as clear as language could make it ; and I think I have al- 
ready shown this ; but I will now say, I have read the New 
Testament carefully through, and noted down every text 
that speaks of the final destiny of the wicked ; or that can 
be construed as referring to it. Let us look at these texts 
and see if any language could well express more clearly 
and forcibly, the utter extirpation of the wicked. 

Testimony of the New Testament. 

1. John the Baptist. Matt. 3 : 10 — " Every tree that 
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into 
the fire." It appears to me — 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



49 



This language imports, clearly, an utter extinction of 
being, and nothing short. Again, in the 12th verse, John 
says of Christ — " He will burn up the chaff with unquench- 
able fire." Here the language denotes nothing less than 
the previous : and is, most clearly, a reference to the words 
of the Lord by Malachi, chap. 4:1. John 3 : 36, « He 
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : he that be- 
lieveth not the Son shall not see life." 

John, then, does not teach the common notion of eternal 
conscious being in torments, but utter destruction of being 
if there is any meaning in language. If, then, the Jews 
did hold the doctrine of endless being in misery, or the im- 
mortality of the wicked, as some pretend, John's preach- 
ing was directly calculated to overthrow it. The next wit- 
ness is, 

2. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Matt. 5 : 29, 30— « For it 
is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, 
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." Let 
it be kept in mind that the term perish, primarily, signifies 
" to cease to have existence." Now, I ask the candid, if 
the one member here is not, by our Lord, put in opposition 
to the whole body ? and if so, is not the sense of this pas- 
sage expressed thus — if one member is diseased it will 
cause the whole body to perish unless that member is re- 
moved ; better, therefore, that one member should be cut off 
and perish than that the whole body perish. 

But, again, Matt. 7 : 13, 14 — « Broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat ; 
because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth 
unto life." 

Here, as destruction is put in opposition to life, and sig- 
nifies to be consumed ; or, as Walker says, " In theology, 
eternal death," it cannot mean eternal life in misery, but a 
" ceasing to be ;" unless we would confound the use of all 
language, and adopt the notion, that the common people 
cannot understand the Bible, and therefore it ought not to 
be put into their hands. In fact, have we not come to that 
pass already ? How much short of this is it, when we are 
told, at least indirectly, that the language of the Scriptures 
5 



50 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



is so figurative that we are not to give the obvious and lite- 
ral sense of the words, as in reading other books ? 

But let us hear our Saviour further : Matt. 7 : 19 — 
" Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn 
down and cast into the fire." The same idea and the same 
language as that used by John the Baptist. I ask if it im- 
ports any thing short of utter destruction ? 

Matt. 10 : 28 — « Fear not them which kill the body but 
are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him who is 
able to destroy both soul and body in hell." I ask if this 
language does not clearly imply, that God is able to kill the 
soul ? and does it not as clearly affirm, that he will kill or 
destroy utterly the wicked ? I have no fear for the answer 
from the candid and unprejudiced. 

Once more ; Matt, xiii : 40, 50 — " As therefore the tares 
are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the 
end of this world : the angels shall come forth and sever 
the wicked from among the just ; and shall cast them into 
the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." How is it possible for words more clearly to de- 
note an utter destruction of being, accompanied with the 
most bitter anguish ? How can these words be tortured to 
mean eternal conscious being ? 

Matt, xvi : 25, 28 — "Whosoever will save his life shall 
lose it" &c. " For what is a man profited if he shall gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul ?" 

Here is no idea of eternal conscious being, or a miserable 
eternal life : but a loss of life, of the soul itself. It could 
not be a loss of the soul, if the soul continues in being. No, 
says the objector, it means loss of happiness to the soul. I 
reply, a loss of happiness is one thing, and the loss of tho 
soul is another and a very different thing. Suppose I should 
interpret the expression, « Whoever will save his life shall 
lose it," to signify that the person who seeks to save his life 
shall lose, not his life, but the happiness of it ! Would not 
the objector himself call it a perversion of the Scriptures ? 
But it is no more a perversion than for him to say, the loss 
of the soul means only the loss of its happiness. 

Again, Matt, xviii : 8, 9 — " Cut off thy hand ; pluck out 
thine eye if" they « cause thee to offend," for « it is better 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



5 j 



for thee to enter into life halt or maimed," or « with one 
eye, than to be cast into everlasting" or " hell fire." 

Here the punishment is the opposite of life, which it could 
not be, if the wicked are to have endless life or eternal con- 
scious being. 

Thus then we fail to find, in the language of our blessed 
Lord, the doctrine of eternal conscious being in torments ; 
but we do find that the punishment of the wicked will re- 
sult in the loss of life ; preceded by sufferings more or less 
protracted ; set forth as the anguish fire produces on this 
corporeal system, and by the "wailing and gnashing of 
teeth." We find, then, if I mistake not, no countenance to 
the supposed Jewish notion of eternal conscious being in 
misery. 

Let us now examine, 

3. Peter's Testimony, Acts iii : 23—" Every soul which 
will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among 
the people." This language cannot relate to a destruction 
in this world, nor, as some suppose, to a violent destruction 
from this world, unless it can be shown that all who have 
refused to hear Christ have been thus destroyed. But this 
cannot be done ; for, the unbelieving Jews have existed on 
earth to this day. It must therefore relate to a destruction 
yet future. 

Acts viii : 20 — " Thy money perish with thee." Again, 
2 Peter, ii : 1 — " Bring upon themselves swift destruction." 
Also, 12th verse — " These as natural brute beasts, made to 
be taken and destroyed, shall utterly perish." This, cer- 
tainly, does not look like teaching the common theory, that 
the wicked are immortal ; and I know not how any form 
of expression could more forcibly teach the utter extermi- 
nation of the wicked. At the 17th verse, he says of cer- 
tain wicked characters, « To whom the mist of darkness is 
reserved forever." This expression, to my mind, carries 
the idea of a total destruction ; as light is sometimes put 
for life in the Scriptures ; as, for example, " the life was 
the light of man," so darkness is put for death ; and the 
" mist of darkness forever," I conceive, implies an utter 
extinction of being. 

But again, 3d chap. — "The heavens and earth — are 



52 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdi- 
tion of ungodly men." " Perdition," according to Walker, 
signifies " Destruction — Ruin — Death — Loss — Eternal 
Death." "Which of these definitions favours the common 
theory of eternal conscious being ? 

Again at the 9th verse Peter says : " The Lord is not 
willing that any should perish" &c. Lastly he tells us, 
at the 16th verse, that some " wrest the Scriptures to their 
own destruction. " 

Thus I have noticed every passage found in Peter's testi- 
mony concerning the final destiny of wicked men ; and I 
ask my candid hearers, if it were not for the tiammels 
thrown around our minds by tradition, if we should ever 
give any other interpretation to these texts than the plain 
obvious one of destruction of bei?ig ? So it seems to me. 
I come to — 

4. James' Testimony. Let us now hear what he has to 
say . 1st chap. 15th verse, he says : " Sin when it is finished 
bringeth forth death /' and again, 5th chap. 20th verse, he 
says : " He which converteth the sinner from the error of 
his way shall save a soul from death." How can a man in 
his senses maintain that the soul is " deathless," with such 
testimony before his eyes ? And why should we submit to 
this mistifying the plain language of the Holy Spirit to keep 
an old theory alive, which cannot live in the light of a literal 
construction of scripture language, and when no good 
reason can be given for departing from the literal meaning ? 

5. John's Testimony. 1st John 2 : 17. "The world 
passeth away and the lusts thereof ; but he that doeth the 
will of God abideth forever." The inference is irresistible, 
that the wicked will not abide forever. 

Again — Rev. 20 : 14, 15. "And death and hell were 
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And 
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was 
cast into the lake of fire" : i. e. they experience the pains 
of the second death, a death of soul and body, or of the 
whole man : and this because they would not come unto 
Christ that they " might have life" 

Let us hear this apostle once more. Rev. 21 : 8. But 
the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and mur- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 53 

derers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and 
all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burnetii with 
fire and brimstone ; which is the second death." 

Other passages in Rev. supposed to refer to the final 
punishment of the wicked, I have noticed in another place. 
I leave you to judge to which theory, that of endless being, 
or destruction of being, the testimony of John belongs. 

6. Jade's Testimony. Sixth verse, he says : " The 
angels which kept not their first estate, he hath reserved in 
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of 
the great day." Here we have an account of sinning an- 
gels, and learn that they are " reserved ;" but for what are 
they reserved ? First — for judgment; i. e. to be judged ; 
and the fair inference is, they are after that to receive their 
punishment, according to the declaration of Peter, that 
« God knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of 
judgment to be punished." I suppose it will be admitted 
by all that the fallen angels are now tormented; but that 
is not the punishment they are to have for their sins, though 
it is a consequence of their sins. What, then, is to be their 
punishment ? Let them speak for themselves. " Art thou 
come to destroy us ?" said they to him of whom the apostle 
says to the Hebrews, he shall " destroy him who hath the 
power of death, that is the devil." But if the testimony of 
the devils, nor that of the apostle are sufficient, then hear 
that of the " Lord God" himself. Addressing the old ser- 
pent, the devil, he said: "The seed of the woman shall 
bruise thy head " an expression so familiar to all, that I 
hardly need add, that no language could more forcibly point 
out the utter destruction of the devil. 

Again — Jude, speaking of certain wicked characters, says, 
— " Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of 
darkness forever." The figure here used denotes an utter, 
total, and eternal obscuration, or disappearing. — No lan- 
guage scarcely could be conceived of, that would more for- 
cibly denote the utter destruction of the wicked — of their 
being itself, so that they appear no more forever. 

7. Testimony of Paul. I have already said, we have 
not a particle of evidence in the Acts of the Apostles of the 
truth of the common theory of the eternal conscious being 

5* 



54 



BIBLE EXAMINE 



of the wicked, the very place where we should expect to 
find it, if any where in the Bible, hecause the Apostles ad- 
dressed the most wicked men ; but we hear Paul saying to 
the wicked Jews— " Seeing ye judge yourselves unworthy 
of everlasting life." Not everlasting happiness, or happy 
life ; but simply life. And the same wicked characters he 
cautions to beware lest they " perish." Why did he not 
thunder in their ears, eternal conscious being in torments, 
if he believed it ? Surely the subjects he addressed were as 
fit for such a state as any men well could be ; for they " con- 
tradicted and blasphemed." But so far as punishment was 
concerned, the apostle seems to have had no stronger lan- 
guage than " perish." 

Rom. 1 : 32 — The apostle says, of certain wicked char- 
acters — " They which commit such things are worthy ot 
death." And in the second chapter, after speaking of the 
result of seeking for honour, and glory, and immortality., 
— viz : eternal life, he adds — As many as have sinned 
without law shall perish without law — in the day God shall 
judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. Here the time 
and nature of the punishment of a certain class of sinners 
is clearly pointed out : and the language is directly opposed 
to the common notion of eternal conscious being. 

Again — Rom. 6 : 21 — 23 — " For the end of these things 
is death. But now being made free from sin — ye have your 
fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the 
wages of sin is death : but the gift of God is eternal life, 
through Jesus Christ." Here, then, the apostle teaches the 
opposite of the common theory — and denounces death upon 
them. How strange he had not told them, they had " death- 
less spirits !" What force there must have been in his 
preaching in that case ! ! 

Rom. 8 : 13 — The apostle says — "If ye five after the 
flesh ye shall dieP Again, — " Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death . ? " And again — " To be carnally 
minded is death ,•" and at the ninth chapter, he speaks of 
"vessels of wrath fitted to destruction /' and 14th chapter, 
15 and 20, he says — "Destroy not him with thy meat for 
whom Christ died. For meat destroy not the work of 
God." 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



55 



Let us now look into the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 
1st chapter, 18th verse — " For the preaching of the cross is 
to them that perish, foolishness." 3d chapter, 17th verse, 
— " If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God 
destroy •" 8th chapter, 11th v. — " Through thy knowledge 
shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died ;" and 
15th chapter, 18 v. — "Then they that are fallen asleep in 
Christ are perished" — if Christ be not risen ; and 2d Corth. 
2d chapter 15 — 16 v. — "For we are unto God a sweet 
savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that 
perish. To the one we are a savor of death unto death ; 
and to the other the savor of life unto life," Can any 
thing be plainer ? Who would ever dream that the apostle 
meant, by such language, eternal conscious being to the 
wicked, if he had not been creedized into it ? 

Gal. 6 : 8 — " He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh 
reap corruption — (not immortality) but he that soweth to 
the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." 

Phil. 1 : 28 — « Which is to them an evident token of 
perdition and 3d : 19 — "Whose end is destruction." 

1 Thess. 5 : 3 — " Sudden destruction cometh upon them 
— and they shall not escape." 

2 Thess. 1 : 8, 9 — " Who shall be punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord," &c. 2 
Thess. 2 : 10 — "In them that perish." Hebrews 6 : 8 — 
" That which beareth thorns and briars is nigh unto curs- 
ing, whose end is to be burned." Is there any thing left 
of thorns and briars when they are burned ? Tenth chap. 
26 to 39 v. — " Fiery indignation which shall devour the 
adversaries," &c. " We are not of them that draw back 
unto perdition ; but of them that believe to the saving of 
the soul." 

This closes up the apostle's testimony ; and it is aston- 
ishing to me that I ever believed the common notion of 
eternal conscious being of the wicked. In the language I 
have quoted, is there not a sufficient refutation of that no- 
tion, even if the Jews did hold it, as some pretend ? I 
believe I have now gone through with an examination of 
every text in the New Testament that directly relates to 
the subject, except a few which are parallel to those I have 



56 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



examined in Matthew, and therefore need not, at present, be 
taken up. 

A few days since, a minister of the gospel, who has stu- 
died the Scriptures with unusual attention, said to me — 
" If the Apostle Paul believed in the destruction of the 
wicked, why did he not preach it?" I replied — he did 
preach it; and he never preached any other doctrine. I 
then read to him every passage in the Bible where Paul 
speaks in reference to the destiny of the wicked. He 
seemed astonished to hear nothing in direct support of the 
common theory, and appeared to feel unable to make a reply. 
That minister has since embraced the doctrine here advo- 
cated. 

Concluding Remarks. 

Thus, we see, God has set life and death before us — 
eternal life and eternal destruction. We are called upon to 
choose life. We are moral beings, and therefore free agents 
—free to choose life, or death. Not to be thus free, we 
should be mere machines ; and all the commands, invita- 
tions, and exhortations, as well as the warnings and threat- 
enings of God, would be but mockery. God calls, invites, 
commands, expostulates, entreats, and warns ; but God can- 
not compel a man to turn from death, without destroying 
man's moral agency, which would be, in fact, to unman 
man, and make him as incapable of happiness as any other 
mere machine. No, man must turn and live, or he will 
pass on and die, — die because he would not have life ; — die 
because he is unfit for any purpose of life — wholly disquali- 
fied for the employments of life. By sin and unholiness, 
he is morally as incapable of answering any useful purpose 
in the holy service of God, as a man with some physical 
disease is disqualified for the active duties of this life. And 
the sinner, persisting in the course of sin and death, will 
as certainly pass the period of being restored, and when 
death to his soul must be the result, as a man with a fatal 
disorder will certainly, by neglecting proper medical aid, 
pass the period when death can be arrested. And if you 
would think the man unwise, and acting insanely, that pro- 
crastinates, and puts off application to a proper remedy in 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



57 



such a physical disorder, how much more is every careless 
and dying sinner chargeable with folly and madness, who 
delays applying to Christ, the soul's Physician ! Every day 
increases the danger ; and every day the moral disease is 
increasing in malignity — every day is bringing the sinner 
nearer to that point, which, when once past, there is no 
recovery — destruction and death must follow, 

Let none, then, delay any longer : — God is now calling 
— " look unto me and live." The Lord Jesus Christ is 
stretching forth his hands, and saying, — " This is that bread 
which came down from heaven, that a man might eat there- 
of and not die." " Whosoever drinketh the water that I 
shall give him"— it " shall be in him a well of water spring- 
ing up into everlasting life." 

Men, for the health of their bodies, will travel far, visit 
mineral springs, pay immense sums of money, and feel 
they are bound to do it, to prolong life, and restore health. 
Shall they not take as much pains about, and care of their 
souls, which may have eternal life, — soul and body glorified 
together, and made immortal, but which are now dying — 
perishing — hastening to utter destruction ? 

I beseech you, my dying fellow men, hasten to Christ, 
who only has eternal life to give — believe in him, and trust 
in his power and skill to make alive ; abide by his direc- 
tions — follow him. Remember no man can come to the 
Father but by Christ. There is no other way of salvation 
or eternal life, but by the Son of God alone. All other 
physicians and remedies are of no value. If you stay away 
you die. O, come to Christ and live. 



FIFTH DISCOURSE, 

"These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they re- 
ceived the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures 
daily whether these things were so." — Acts xvii. 11. 

^Paul and Silas were persecuted at Thessalonica, for the 
doctrine they preached, and had to leave that place. The 
Thessalonians seemed to think it was no matter what Scrip- 



53 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



ture proof the Apostles could present in defence of their 
position ; that question they would not examine. It was 
enough for them to know it was turning " the world upside 
down," bringing something to their ears that differed from 
their long established ways of thinking ; that was not to be 
endured at all ; hence what they lacked in reason and argu- 
ment, they made up in contempt of these disturbers of the 
established order that existed among them ; and they re- 
jected the Apostles without giving the subject an examina- 
tion. Not so the Bereans — they first heard — then examined 
the Scriptures to see whether what they heard was in ac- 
cordance with the sure rule and test by which all theories 
are to be tried. They did not go to their creeds — articles 
of faith — nor doctors even, but to the Scriptures themselves, 
■ — and this they did " daily." No wonder inspiration should 
call them " noble." They manifested a noble and praise- 
worthy spirit : and it is left on record for our learning. 
Happy are we, if we act on the same principles. 

No man is worthy the name of a minister of Jesus Christ 
who asks his hearers to receive what he says for truth, 
without being satisfied, by a personal study of the Scrip- 
tures, that it is truth. 

With these remarks, I now proceed to a farther exami- 
nation of objections to the theory that the finally impeni- 
tent will be utterly destroyed, or rooted out of the universe 
of God. 

Further Objections Considered. 

It is said, because " the destruction of the wicked is not 
so terrible as interminable existence in misery, that there- 
fore it does not present an adequate motive for repentance, 
but diminishes the proper restraints of sin." 

I have already answered, in part, this objection ; but, I 
would here inquire — does not the threatening of the loss of 
all the glory of immortality, and enduring torments which 
shall result in the total extermination of soul and body, pre- 
sent a sufficient appeal to the fears of men, if they can be 
moved by that principle at all ? If the loss of all the glo- 
rious displays of God's wisdom, power, and love, that will 
be eternally unfolding, in eternal life, together with the ac« 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 59 



tual sufferings and torments the sinner will endure, prior 
to his utter destruction, are not motives sufficient to lead to 
repentance, the mind must he too stupid to be moved by the 
idea of endless torments. Besides, we know that the greater 
portion of men have remained impenitent under the preach- 
ing of the theory I oppose : and I here repeat what I have 
before said, that I solemnly believe the natural tendency of 
that theory is to make men infidels instead of Christians : 
they cannot credit it; and, thinking that it is taught in the 
Bible, they reject revelation altogether. 

Another objection, it may be proper I should here notice, 
is, it is said, upon the theory I advocate, " The punishment 
God has threatened is, that he will put an end to the mise- 
ries of the wicked." I answer — It is no such thing. It is 
not that he will put an end to their miseries, but to their 
being, and of course, to all hope of life and happiness. 
That an end of conscious misery is necessarily implied, I 
admit ; but that is no part of the threatening. Let the 
objector apply his argument to the law which says, the man 
who commits murder shall die ; i. e. says the objector, the 
law threatens to put an end to the murderer's remorse and 
misery ! 

I have already noticed that one of the arguments that 
the soul is immortal is, that all men desire immortality. 
Yet the same persons tell us, that some men had much 
rather die than to have the very thing they desire, viz. im- 
mortality. That men do desire immortality I have not 
denied ; but if they do, they cannot at the same time desire 
death. Man loves life, and prefers it to death. " All that 
a man hath will he give for his life," is a truth, though 
uttered by Satan. Men at present can be but little affected 
by the common theory of endless being in misery, because, 
it is utterly impossible for any finite mind to have any 
clear idea of such a punishment. Destruction of being, 
or death, is something that strikes the senses, and reaches 
the understandings of men, and must therefore have more 
present influence on men's minds, in leading them to for- 
sake sin, than that of which they can have no clear con- 
ceptions. 

Besides, so long as you allow that man's being is eternal, 



60 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



you cannot divest his mind of the idea, though it may be 
secretly indulged, that somehow he shall escape from that 
punishment ; even though he cannot at present give any 
definite idea how it is to be done. Hence multitudes plunge 
into the doctrine of restorationism. 

Some tell us that " spiritual death is the penalty of the 
law." I answer, the phrase " spiritual death" is not found 
in the Bible ; and in the manner it is usually employed, I 
am satisfied it tends rather to confusion in the mind than 
the conveying of any definite idea. It is intended, I sup- 
pose, to convey the sentiment that impenitent men are un- 
holy, and have no rational conceptions of God, and the 
things of God. But this sentiment is capable of being ex- 
pressed in language less obscure and equivocal. Men are 
said, in Bible language, to be unholy, sensual, carnally- 
minded, not having the knowledge of God, earthly, devilish, 
lovers of their own selves, proud, lovers of the world, hate- 
ful, and hating one another, &c. &c. 

All these expressions are sufficiently definite to be under- 
stood ; but "spiritual death," if it means anything, signi- 
fies something analogous to the death of the body. By bodily 
death, if I may employ that expression, we mean that the 
body ceases all action, sense, and life. Then, if spiritual 
death is analogous, it must mean that the spirit ceases all 
action, sense, and life. In that sense, I have no objection 
to admitting that it is the penalty of the law. That penalty 
is not yet inflicted however. But if the term is employed 
in any other sense to signify the penalty of the law, I de- 
mand the proof. Where is it ^ Where ? 

If it be said, " the death threatened to Adam must be a 
spiritual death, as it was to take place in the day he eat the 
forbidden fruit," I reply, if the penalty was spiritual death, 
in the sense the objector means, and if the penalty, as he 
understands it, was executed in the literal day that Adam 
eat that fruit, then the death of the body and the " wrath to 
come" was no part of the penalty, as neither of those events 
took place till nearly a thousand years after. 

The penalty was not, « In the day thou eatest thereof 
thou shalt die ;" but as the Hebrew language has it — " dy- 
ing thou shalt die." That very day the promise of immor- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



61 



tality was withdrawn, by man's being cut off from the tree 
of life 5 and the whole man commenced dying. The 
existence of man from that hour became one of pain, sor- 
row, misery, and is hastening to its wind up, and will result 
in the utter extermination of his being, unless counteracted 
by eating " that bread that came down from heaven, that a 
man might eat thereof and not die." Christ is that " tree 
of life whose fruit is for the healing of the nations." " God 
has given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son 
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; but he 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of God abideth on him," and abiding on him must result in 
death ; for that is the unalterable wages of sin throughout 
the universe of God ; as certainly so after the resurrection 
as before ; for some shall come forth to the resurrection of 
damnation, i. e., condemnation to the second death. 

Let us examine this point a little further, i. e., the idea 
that the penalty of the law of God is spiritual death. Turn 
to the account of man's creation, and the prohibition given 
him. 

" The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man 
became a living soul." 

Did God address this " living soul," when he said, « In 
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" — or, " in 
dying thou shalt die ? To say otherwise would be an ab- 
surdity. 

To maintain that the death threatened was spiritual death, 
't appears to me is to confound man's sin with his punish- 
ment ; if by spiritual death is meant, man became insensi- 
ble to his obligation to his Maker, and to his own condition 
as a sinner, and lost all disposition to obey God ; and that, 
I suppose, is what is meant by it. Strange penalty that. 
What would you think on reading the law which says, 
" For murder a man shall die," if some person should tell 
you it did not mean that the murderer should " be hung by 
the neck till he is dead," but that when he has committed 
the act of murder, he should immediately become insensi- 
ble to his obligation to regard lawful authority, and to his 
own condition as a murderer, and lose all disposition to obey 
6 



62 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



any law ? Would you not think such an interpretation of 
law was " murdering the king's English ?" and would you 
not also think that the man's insensibility and want of dis- 
position to obey any law, was an additional circumstance in 
his guilt, instead of being his punishment ? 

This insensibility to God and his claims upon us, is our 
sin and not our punishment, nor the penalty of God's law. 
To represent it in that light, is to furnish sinners with a 
perfect excuse for living in insensibility to God's claims 
upon them. If this state of spiritual death, as it is called, 
is the punishment of sin, or the penalty of the law, what 
•nan is now to blame for remaining in it ? 

The fact is, this insensibility to God, and his claims upon 
us, is an aggravation of our sin, and not the penalty of the 
law. The Bible represents this state as a high crime. " Is- 
rael doth not know, my people doth not consider ; O that 
they had hearkened unto me," &c. Why all this com- 
plaint, if insensibility or spiritual death is the penalty or 
punishment that God has inflicted on men for sin ? Did 
God complain of men for not escaping out of his hands, 
and so avoiding the punishment ? As well might the gov- 
ernment complain of the murderer for not slipping the 
noose of his halter when hanging by his neck, on the sup- 
position that spiritual death is the punishment inflicted for 
sin. Let no man comfort his soul with that delusive idea. 
Depend upon it, our insensibility is a most horrid sin. Let 
the Almighty himself speak to such souls ; and what is his 
language to them ? " Now consider this, ye that forget 
God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver." 
Psa. 50 : 22. 

Some tell us, that by the destruction of the wicked is 
meant the destruction of their sins ; and others, the destruc- 
tion of happiness. What ground have either of these 
classes of persons for their assertions ? The destruction of 
sin, of happiness, of being, are entirely distinct ideas ; 
though the latter involves the others, yet each is capable of 
being expressed in appropriate language. With respect to 
-the latter, I know of no way in which it could be more ap- 
propriately or clearly set forth than it is by our Lord, in 
Matt. 10 : 28 — "Fear him which is able to destroy both 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL. 



63 



soul and body in hell." Compare this with the expression 
of the apostle — " Who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord," and with Ps. 
92 : 7 — " The wicked shall be destroyed for ever." What 
testimony could be more explicit, that those who obey not 
the gospel are to be punished with destruction of being, and 
not of their sins or happiness merely. 

One other objection I will here notice from the Bible, 
which was passed over in my main argument. It is found- 
ed on Daniel 12 : 2 — « Many of them that sleep in the dust 
of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
to shame and everlasting contempt." 

It is said, "> they must have everlasting consciousness to 
feel shame." 

I reply : " Shame" signifies not only a passion felt when 
reputation is lost, but the "disgrace and ignominy," which 
follows men for bad conduct long after they have passed 
away, personally, from knowledge. Take the case of a 
traitor to his country. For example, the conduct of Arnold 
in the American Revolution. He is never thought of with- 
out the shame of his evil deeds connected with him ; and 
it is a shame that is everlasting- — never can be wiped off, 
though he ceases to live on earth to be conscious of it. He 
may be said, truly, to be a subject of everlasting " contempt," 
i. e., he is " despised," and " scorned" for his vile conduct, 
and always will be. 

I see no difficulty, therefore, in the text under consider- 
ation. Here, also, as I have often remarked elsewhere, the 
punishment is put in opposition to life. The natural infer- 
ence is, that those who do not awake to life, awake to die 
again. 

I might remark again — the text does not say that they 
awake to everlasting shame. It says they awake to shame 
— mark that — " some to shame," — and everlasting contempt. 
Now, so far as the argument is concerned, I care nothing 
about this distinction, yet if my opponent is determined to 
force this text to his aid, he must have no more of it than 
there is ; hence, I affirm, the text does not say, that the 
shame shall be everlasting, but only that they shall awake 
to shame; and surely they must feel overwhelmed with 



64 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



shame, when God shall call them from their graves ; and 
when they shall be condemned to death, as too vile to have 
a place anywhere in the universe of God ; and the contempt 
that will follow them will be everlasting. 

There is one other text I will here notice, as it is of the 
same nature as the one in Daniel. John v. 28, 29, " The 
hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall 
hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done 
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
evil to the resurrection of damnation." 

Let it be observed here, that life, simply, is the reward 
spoken of for them that have done good ; the others come 
forth, but it is not to live ; for it is a resurrection to damna- 
tion, or condemnation, for, so the word signifies. The only 
question, then, to settle is — what is the punishment to 
which they are condemned ? That it is a punishment from 
which they never recover, I have no doubt. But is it ever- 
lasting life in misery, or death ? I think it is the latter. In 
connection with the words under consideration, our Saviour 
said, at the 24th verse, " He that heareth my word, and be- 
lieveth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall 
not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death unto 
life." This text throws light on the other, and shows that 
our Saviour intended to be understood, by the damnation, 
or condemnation of evil doers, a condemnation unto Death, 
not life in misery. I conceive this text, then, gives no coun- 
tenance to the common theory of eternal being in undescri- 
bable torments, but shows that Death and not Life is the 
portion of those who have been doers of evil. 

Again, it is said, by way of objection, — Your " doctrine 
was held by the Arians — is now held by the Unitarians — 
that is Christianism — and finally, that it is Elias Smith's 
doctrine." 

Whether these marvellous objections are true " or not, I 
know not," as I never conversed with any of the above- 
named classes on the point, and know not that I ever read 
a paragraph from any of them on the subject. But sup- 
pose what the objector says is true ; it does not touch the 
question of the truth of this doctrine, nor at all shake my 
faith. We know the time was, when the grand argument 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



65 



against some points of doctrine was " That 's Arminianism" 
— » That 's Calvinism" — or " That is what the Methodists 
hold," Such language has passed for a very good argu- 
ment to frighten enslaved minds, in the absence of a better. 

But I may ask, whether, in a Christian land, there ever 
was a sect having no truth in their theory ? and whether 
any sect will have the pride to arrogate to themselves that 
they have the truth — the whole truth — and nothing but the 
truth ? If there is such a sect, it had better repair to Rome 
immediately, and get confirmed for infallibility. 

The fact is, truth lies scattered among all denominations ; 
none of them have the whole truth, and nothing but the 
truth. Some have more than others. The guilt of all sects, 
lies to a great extent, in that intolerant spirit, that, in point 
of fact, claims for itself infallibility, and harbours, to a great- 
er or less extent, the idea that " there is no salvation out of" 
their " church ;" whilst inspiration declares that " In every 
nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is 
accepted with him." 

Again, it is said, " You have gone half way to Univer- 
salism." That is, I have granted that even Universalists 
have some truth. They do not believe in the eternal con- 
scious being of the wicked in torments ; and I have admit- 
ted, that in this, they are right. Unhappy men ! — must 
they be so " chased out of the world," to keep up the war- 
fare upon them, that in all they pretend to hold for truth, 
they are so blinded that they have none ? 

I am glad in my heart, if I can approach one step to- 
wards Universalists, without sacrificing truth ; for I hope 
thereby to gain some of them, and save their souls alive, by 
removing out of their hands their main argument for uni- 
versal salvation : viz,, that "The idea of the eternal con- 
scious being of innumerable human beings, in undescriba- 
ble torments, is irreconcilable with the perfections of God, 
and that therefore all men will be saved." The hearer see- 
ing no other view of the subject, but eternal conscious being 
in misery, or Universalism, takes hold of the latter. 

Every one, who has had anything to do with Universal- 
ists, knows this is their main fort ; and here it is they al- 
ways wish to meet their opposers — and their converts are 
6* 



66 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



made more from the exhibition of the hombleness of the 
punishment, which their opposers say is to he inflicted upon 
the wicked, than any other, and all other arguments that 
they use. 

If, then, I have taken this weapon from their hands, 
which is no where explicitly taught in the word of God, am 
I not better prepared to come down upon their hearts and 
understandings by the express declarations of the Most 
High, that, " The soul that sinneth it shall die ,•" — that, the 
wicked " Shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord — that they shall be " Cast 
into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second 
death /' — that they shall be " Tormented day and night for 
ever and ever," i. e. while their being lasts — and that finally 

— they shall " utterly perish" — " be destroyed forever" — 
" be consumed with terrors"—-" shall not see life" — be cut 
off forever, from all the pleasures derived from " everlasting 
life," because they have refused to come to Christ that they 
might have life. 

Is there nothing awakening in all this ? Nothing calcu- 
lated to arouse the sinner to seek life ? And the language 
too, is Scriptural, and less likely to objection than the un- 
scriptural language of " immortal soul" — " deathless spirit" 

— " always dying and never dead" — " eternal conscious 
being in torments," &c. <fec, all of which are of human in- 
vention, to say nothing of some of them being a contradic- 
tion in terms, and a flat denial of the testimony of God, that 
« The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

To talk of a "soul always dying and never dead;" or, 
of " a death that never dies," is such an absurdity, that I 
wonder how it was ever believed by any man who thinks 
for himself. A doctrine that involves such a palpable con- 
tradiction is not to be promulgated for truth, unless we wish 
to bring discredit upon revelation itself. The theory I op- 
pose has driven many thinking men into infidelity. That 
any man can embrace it, I cannot account for, except from 
the fact, that they have been early taught it, and the dread 
of feeling the indignation of bigoted men who think it a 
crime to depart from what they, or their fathers have bap- 
tized " orthodox." 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



67 



Another objection to the theory I advocate, and perhaps 
the one that stands most in the way of its being received 
for truth, is, — " If this doctrine is true, why has it never 
been found out before ?" 

I do not know but it has been found out before. I lay 
no claim to being the discoverer of it. I am told that 
Samuel Bourne of Birmingham, and John Taylor of Nor- 
wich, held the same sentiments, " in substance, making due 
allowance for the shape and colour they have received fron 
the peculiar mind of Mr. Storrs." Whether that is true 01 
not I know not, as I never saw a line of their writings 
that I know of. My attention was called to the subject by 
a small pamphlet I found in New York, some years ago. 
Who was its author, I do not know, as it had no name 
attached to it. I read it, but did not think much of it at the 
time. It is the only thing of the kind I ever saw before or 
since on the subject till lately. I suppose I felt like tile ob- 
jector ; i. e. if this view of the subject be true, why is it that 
Christians and ministers have not learned it before ? Never- 
theless, I could not resist the impression to examine the 
subject for myself. I did so from time to time for several 
years, and conversed with ministers on the subject ; for I 
would not then allow myself to speak upon it with laymen, 
lest I might lead them into a belief of a doctrine which I 
had not fully investigated, and be the means of their going 
astray. I studied the Bible, reading and noting down every 
text that spoke of, or appeared to have reference to the final 
destiny of wicked men. The result of my investigations 
and convictions I have laid before you. 

The fact that a particular view of religious truth is new, 
is no proof of its incorrectness ; it may be a reason why we 
should not embrace it without thorough investigation. How 
many things passed for truth in the dark ages of the church, 
that have since been exploded ! and when they were first 
exposed to the light, the " innovators," as they were called, 
were branded as " heretics." 

We should do well to remember that we have but just 
emerged from the dark ages of the church ; and it would 
not be at all strange if we should find some " Babylonish 
garments" still worn by us for truth 5 or to speak without a 



68 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



figure, we have no reason to suppose that the Reformers, 
as they are called, divested themselves of all the supersti- 
tions and false interpretations that had been put upon the 
Bible, when ignorant men were kept in awe by the sup- 
posed sanctity of the priests. 

The Reformers may have done well, considering their 
circumstances, and the prejudices of their education : but 
must we sit down and quietly follow exactly in their steps, 
without employing the understanding and Bibles God has 
given us, to see if there are not things " new," as well as 
" old" in God's blessed word ? Our Saviour saith : " Every 
scribe which is instructed nnto the Kingdom of God, bring- 
eth forth out of his treasures, things new and old." 

If it is a fact, in science generally, that false theories have 
been held for ages, may it not be so in religion f — Since my 
recollection, the theory has been held, and promulgated for 
Bible truth, that there were " infants in hell not a span 
long" — and that " God made some men on purpose to show 
his power in their eternal torments in hell fire." Yes, and 
that he " decreed all their sins which led to the result," and 
sent " the gospel to some people on purpose," i. e. with the 
design, " to increase their damnation!" And it is within 
my remembrance, that a man was not considered orthodox 
who did not hold these views. But, I doubt, if any man 
now can be found who holds such sentiments ; or, if he 
does, will be willing to avow them. 

Is it to be wondered at, then, if in an age when such 
shocking absurdities are but just passing away, there should 
be found still left a remnant of doctrine belonging to the 
same class ? 

Benson, an eminent English minister, in a sermon on 
"The Future Misery of the Wicked," says, " God is present 
in hell, in his infinite justice and almighty wrath, as an um 
fathomable sea of liquid fire, where the wicked must drink 
xi everlasting torture — the presence of God in his vengeanct 
catters darkness and wo through the dreary regions of 
misery. As heaven would be no heaven if God did not 
there manifest his love, so hell would be no hell, if God did 
not there display his wrath. It is the presence and agency 
of God, which gives every thing virtue and efficacy, with- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 69 



out which, there can be no life, no sensibility, no power." 
He then adds — « God is, therefore, himself present in hell, 
to see the punishment of these rebels against his govern- 
ment, that it may be adequate to the infinity of their guilt : 
his fiery indignation kindles, and his incensed fury feeds 
the flame of their torment, while his powerful presence and 
operation maintain their being, and render all their powers 
most acutely sensible ; thus setting the keenest edge upon 
their pain, and making it cut most intolerably deep. He 
will exert all his divine attributes to make them as wretched 
as the capacity of their nature will admit." 

After this he goes on to describe the duration of this work 
of God, and calls to his aid all the stars, sand, and drops of 
water, and makes each one tell a million of ages: and 
when all those ages have rolled away, he goes over the 
same number again, and again, and so on forever. 

And all this he brings forth with a text of Scripture that 
asserts the wicked " shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord." Such a descrip- 
tion as here given by Mr. Benson needs no comment — it 
defies comment — no language could be employed to make 
a subject look more horrible than what he has used. He 
dwelt upon the subject, himself, till his own soul was filled 
with horror, and he cried out — " Believe me, my poor fel- 
low mortal, thou canst not, indeed thou canst not bear this 
devouring fire ! Thou canst not dwell with these everlast- 
ing burnings !" 

There must be some defect in a theology, it seems to me, 
that leads great men into such palpable contradictions. 

Mr. Benson preached two whole sermons on these sub- 
jects, in which he scarcely produces a text of Scripture in 
support of his theory — they appear to be, throughout, a work 
of imagination. 

I consider, to charge the infinite God with the design and 
determination of exerting his almighty power in holding 
innumerable human beings in undescribable torments, ir 
interminable conscious being, is of the same character as 
the other horrible doctrines that I have named ; and is not 
to be believed without the clearest and most positive testi « 
mony. Such testimony the Bible does not furnish, to my 



70 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



mind, and therefore, I reject such a theory as opposed to 
the Bible, to reason, and to common sense. The theory I 
advocate has one great difficulty to overcome, viz : the 
strong prejudice of early education, backed up by the con- 
sideration that the common theory has been so long the 
established faith of the church. But, even that difficulty is 
overbalanced by the fact, that the sympathies of our nature, 
md reason, are opposed to the common theory, and are 
towards the views I advocate, when once presented to the 
•nind : and a spirit to examine for ourselves, instead of 
leaving our thinking to others, has gone forth in the earth. 

If the fact that a theory has long ago been settled, and 
always believed by the " fathers," is a good reason for re- 
jecting, as untrue, any other theory, then the Jews have the 
best reason they could desire for rejecting Jesus of Nazareth 
as the Messiah. The Jewish Church u long ago" decided 
that he was an impostor, and crucified him as such. The 
Jews of the present day, then, may say — " Our church long 
ago settled the point, that Jesus was not the promised Mes- 
siah ; and who were better qualified to judge than they to 
whom the Scriptures were committed, and in whose lan- 
guage they were written ? Besides, our fathers have al- 
ways believed and maintained that Jesus was an impostor. 
Hence, we consider it a settled point." 

Now, I ask, if such an argument is not quite as good 
and forcible, as the one used by some of my opponents, that 
my view must be false, because, as they suppose, the church 
long ago fixed on the opposite theory as true, and their 
fathers have always believed it ? Let such persons make 
no more attempts to convert the Jews. Indeed, they ought 
to turn Jews. 

"Whether others see on this subject as I do or not, it is a 
matter of unspeakable consolation to me to believe, that the 
devil and all his works will be utterly destroyed ; and that 
i universe will appear unstained by sin, misery or death. — 
if others believe the contrary, it will be no cause why I 
should disfellowship them, provided they walk in obedience 
to the will and word of God. The Lord, I trust, has de- 
livered me from that spirit of bigotry which would shut 
out from my christian regard and fellowship any man, sim- 



AEE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 71 



ply because he does not agree with me in sentiments, espe- 
cially if he is striving to live a holy life, by obeying the 
commandments of God ; " for this is the love of God that 
we keep his commandments" — and " he that saith he loves 
God and hateth his brother, is a liar and the truth is not in 
him." 

Whether the doctrine I have advocated is true or false, 
matters not to me, personally, further than truth is con- 
cerned. For, by the grace of God, I intend to '« fight the 
good fight of faith," and " lay hold on eternal life." All 
those that do this, I know, for the Bible declares it, will be 
crowned with honour, and glory, and immortality. Those 
who do not do it, will be cast into the lake of fire, which is 
the second death. — Awful, indeed, will be their end. O, 
that sinners may awake to see their danger, and fly from the 
doom that awaits them ! O, the thoughts of the anguish 
that a dying sinner must feel ! an anguish kindled up by a 
sense of guilt, a sight of what, to them, is lost forever, and 
the curse of a violated law, which will cause them to perish, 
without recovery and without hope. 



■ SIXTH DISCOURSE. 

" I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth ; for the spirit 
should fail before me, and the souls which I have made." — Isa. Ivii. 16. 

We are too apt to take the words of Scripture and apply 
them to all men indiscriminately, without regarding the 
character of the person spoken of. In this way we pervert 
the word of the Most High, and sometimes comfort those 
whom God has not comforted. I conceive, that has been 
done with the words of my text. They have been applied 
to all men ; when the context shows, most clearly, they are 
tspoken only of the " contrite ones," who are " humble and 
contrite" under the judgments, or chastisements that God 
had inflicted upon them for their sins : while it is expressly 
said, in the same connection, there is " no peace to the 
wicked ;" — God's wrath abideth on them ; and abiding on 
them, they will certainly " fail." The term " fail," used in 



72 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



the text, though it has other significations, is, I think, 
generally used by the prophet Isaiah, to signify " to perish." 
He says, 21 : 16 — " All the glory of Kedar shall fai 1 " 
And 19 : 3 — « The spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst 
thereof." 

I consider the sense of the text, then, to be this — " With 
those persons who truly humble themselves, and repent, 
under my rebukes, I will not continue my displeasure — for 
if my wrath should remain upon any man, he would utterly 
perish, soul and spirit, as surely as I have made him." — 
Hence, the doctrine of the text seems to me, to be this — 
1st. God is the Creator of the souls and spirits of men, and 
of course, can destroy them. 2d. If God's wrath should 
continue, upon any man, wuthout being withdrawn, it would 
certainly cause it to " fail" — perish ; or cease to exist : he 
could not continue in being under it. 3. But upon those 
"who do repent, that wrath shall not abide. 

These remarks have chiefly been made to meet an objec- 
tion that man is composed of three parts — body, soul and 
spirit ; and that, though his body and soul might perish, his 
spirit could not. I have used the term soul throughout my 
discourses in its broadest sense as including the essence of 
what constitutes a man ; and I am satisfied that is the gen- 
eral sense in which the Scriptures use it, though in some 
texts it is, undoubtedly, used in a more restricted sense, 
and refers only to that energy that gives activity to the 
body. - 

It is a matter of indifference which way it is applied in 
my text ; for the expressions are such as to include the 
whole man, and to show that every man on whom the wrath 
of God abideth will perish — utterly perish — body, "soul 
and spirit." 

I shall now proceed to notice one of the evils of the op- 
posite theory ; or the maintaining that such expressions as 
die — death — destroy — destroyed — destruction — burned 
up — perish, &c. are not to be understood literally, i. e. ac- 
cording to their obvious meaning, when spoken of the final 
destiny of wicked men. 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



73 



One etil of the cojdioit theory of exhless bein» 
in misery, 

Is, — It sustains the mischievous practice of mystifying, or 
making the Scriptures to have a secret or hidden meaning, 
in the plainest texts. 

This mischievous practice was brought into the church, 
almost as soon as the Apostles had left the world. The 
converts from heathenism seemed intent on uniting heathen 
philosophy with Christianity. Hence they must find an 
abundance of mysteries in the Scriptures ; and the practice 
of allegorizing, i. e. making the language to contain some- 
thing that does not appear in the words, commenced and 
generally prevailed, before the third century. This was 
done, doubtless, with a view to lead heathen philosophers to 
embrace Christianity, as affording them a fruitful field for 
their researches. But it led the church astray into the wild 
fields of conjecture; and every lively imagination could find 
hidden wonders in the Bible ; while the plain literal mean- 
ing of the text was disregarded. That fatal practice in- 
creased from age to age, till the simplicity of the gospel was 
totally eclipsed, and the obscuration has not wholly disap- 
peared to this day. 

This practice has given occasion to honest people, as well 
as to infidels to say, " You can make any thing out of the 
Bible," or " play any tune upon it." And this is true, if 
men are to be allowed to take texts which have a plain, 
obvious, and literal signification, and call them mystical or 
figurative, when there is not a clear necessity for doing so. 
The Scriptures themselves almost uniformly notify us when 
the language is to be understood figuratively ; and gene- 
rally, those figures are explained, and the literal interpreta- 
tion given. 

The common method of making the terms life and deatn 
mystical or figurative, i. e. to mean something more, and 
far different from what appears in the literal and obvious 
signification of the words, I conceive is unwarranted by the 
Scriptures, and tends only to throw confusion upon the 
plainest subjects of the Bible, and also to take away the 
7 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



force and beauty of very many otherwise cleai and intelli- 
gible portions of God's word. 

Let me now call your attention to texts, the beauty and 
force of which are greatly weakened and obscured by such 
a course. 

Look at the young man who came to our Saviour with 
an important inquiry, Matt. 19 : 16 — What does he say ? 
Is it his inquiry, « What shall I do to escape endless being 
in misery ? " No ; but " What shall I do that I may have 
eternal life ?" How plain the question, on the theory I ad- 
vocate, and how appropriate the answer, " If thou wilt en- 
ter into life," &c. Not — if thou wilt escape endless life in 
torments — not, if thou wilt have a « happy eternal life," 
but simply — If thou wilt enter into life. What simplicity, 
beauty, and force ! all is natural, and easy to be understood. 

Again, John 3 : 15, 16, "That whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have ever- , 
lasting life." All here, again, is natural, easy, and forcible, 
on the theory that the wicked are actually to die or perish 
if found rejecting Christ, who only has eternal life to give. 
But on the theory I oppose, we must have a whole sermon 
to explain the meaning of the term perish, and make it 
appear that it does not mean " extinction of being," but 
eternal life in misery ! I once heard a Doctor of Divinity 
in New York city preach a whole sermon on that one 
point ; and that, too, after he had admitted that the pri- 
mary meaning of the term is « extinction of being." It 
seems to me it is taking quite too much paius to make ob- 
scure the meaning of a word, that of itself is easy to be 
understood. 

In the same chapter, at the 36th verse, it is said : « He 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath 
of God abideth on him." He is already condemned to 
death, and is dying ; eternal life is offered in the Son of 
God ; he that will not accept it, through him, shall not pos- 
sess life, but the wrath of God shall abide on him to the full 
execution of the penalty, which is death, the wages of sin. 
Again, John 5 : 2S, 29 — " The hour is coming in which 



ARB THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



75 



all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth ; they that have done good to the resurrection 
of life ; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of 
damnation," or condemnation : but to what ? not to eter- 
nal life in misery, but to death — the second death, for that 
is the wages sin has earned. Here the language is natural 
and forcible, on the view I advocate, and the contrast of life 
and death is perfect ; but I ask any candid man if it is so 
on the view I oppose ? 

Again, at the 39 th and 40th verses : " Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they 
are they that testify of me ; and ye will not come to me, 
that ye might have life." 

They were looking not for eternal happiness merely, or 
an escape from eternal misery, but simply for eternal life. 
Yet, when the only physician who could give that priceless 
blessing calls them to come to him for it, they would not 
come ; and, as a matter of course, their souls are not saved 
* c from death." Look at the following texts, in the 6th 
chapter of John . " Labour for the meat that endureth unto 
everlasting life." " For the bread of God is he which com- 
eth down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." " I 
am the bread of life " " And this is the will of him that 
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth 
on him may have everlasting life." " He that believeth on 
me hath everlasting life." " I am the bread of life." " This 
is that bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man 
may eat thereof, and not die." " If any man eat of this 
bread, he shall live for ever." " The words I speak unto 
you, they are spirit, and they are life." « Lord, to whom 
shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life." 

That simple life and death are put in opposition, or clear- 
ly implied in these texts, is too plain not to be seen by any 
person of common attention. "NOT DIE," — « ETER- 
NAL LIFE." Now, a man shall "not die," if the theory 
* oppose is true, whether he come to Christ or not ; and it 
would have been just as easy to have expressed the doc- 
trine of eternal being in misery by unequivocal language, 
as in that, the literal interpretation of which must necessa- 
rily lead astray, if that doctrine be true. 



76 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



Again, John 8 : 12, "He that foll-oweth me shall have 
the light of life." And at the 51st verse, " If a man keep 
my sayings he shall never see death." Again, in 10th chap- 
ter, " I am come that they might have life." " My sheep 
hear my voice, and they follow me ; and I give unto them 
eternal life — and they shall never perish," &c. Does not 
this language clearly imply, that those who do not follow 
Christ will perish I Yes, says the objector, their happiness 
will perish ! But I ask, if such an interpretation is not 
forced and unnatural ? Our Saviour says no such thing. 
Perish is put in opposition to life. By the simple and nat- 
ural meaning of the terms, there is great beauty and force 
in the language. Besides, to admit of a departure from the 
literal meaning of the term perish, throws us into the re- 
gions of uncertainty ; and if one man may say it means his 
happiness shall perish, another may say it means his sins 
shall perish, and so on. But if it signifies simply what the 
word imports, a destruction of being, then his happiness 
and his sins perish with him, as a matter of course, and 
there is no obscurity about it. 

Again, the 1 1th chapter, 25th and 26th verses — " I am the 
resurrection and the life ; he that belie veth in me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and 
believeth in me shall never die." How forcible and full of 
power are those words, literally understood ! But say, to 
die, means loss of happiness, though the person has con- 
scious being, or life, and you at once strip the expression 
of our Lord of the energy which it possesses in its plain 
and obvious meaning. 

Again — " I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man 
cometh unto the Father but by me." 

Again, Rom. 5 : 17 — "If by one man's offence, death 
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance 
of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life 
by one Jesus Christ ; therefore, as by the offence of one, 
judgment came upon all men to condemnation, (i. e. unto 
death ;) even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift 
came upon all men, (i. e. in its offer,) unto justification of 
life j M " That as sin hath reigned unto death," (i. e. unto 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



77 



s^ndemnation to death,) " even so might grace reign through 
l%hteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Again, in the 6th chapter, 13th verse — " Yield yourselves 
onto God, as those that are alive from the dead." Now 
..ook at such expressions as the following : « The crown of 
ife," — " The word of life," — " the grace of life," — " He 
that hath the Son hath life — he that hath not the Son of 
God hath not life," — « The water of life," — " Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on 
him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life/' — 
" This do and thou shalt live," — " Because I live ye shall 
live also," — " We shall also live with him," — " Be in sub- 
jection unto the Father of spirits, and live," — " God sent 
his Son, that we might live through him," — " If one died 
for all, then were all dead," (L e., dying, doomed to die ; as 
the body is dead, because of sin, i. e., doomed to die, though 
not yet actually dead.) " Who died for us, that we should 
live together with him." These, and a multitude of other 
texts of Scripture, all speak in plain and unequivocal lan- 
guage, if the view I take of the final destiny of the wicked 
is correct ; otherwise, and if figurative, the imagination 
must be employed to explain them ; and then we find our- 
selves let loose in the wild fields of fancy ; and who shall 
decide where we shall stop ? 

What man lost by the fall ; or, a short disser- 
tation ON NATIVE DEPRAVITY. 

In my discourse on the inquiry, Are the wicked immor- 
tal ? I have endeavoured to show that man, by the fall, lost 
all title to immortality ; and had it not been for the "seed 
of the woman," he would have utterly perished, or ceased 
to be, as though he never had been. There is not a parti- 
cle of evidence that the original threatening embraced eter- 
nal life in misery ; and that idea has puzzled our greatest 
and most learned divines, to tell how an atonement could 
be made adequate to redeem man from such a punishment. 
To meet the case, they have gone to the idea that God, 
himself, suffered to make the necessary atonement ; and 
then they have started back from that position, as being im- 



78 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



pos.ibl.5 that the Godhead could actually suffer, and bo hive 
eubstitutsd tie "human body and soul" of Jesus Christ, as 
united with the Godhead, the human nature only suffering. 
This has led others to deny an atonement altogether, as 
they have contended that the man Christ Jesus, while the 
Godhead did not suffer, could not, by any sufferings he 
might endure, give an equivalent for endless torments in the 
fire of hell. Pressed with this difficulty, the advocates of 
the endless being in torments, have been led to say, it wa3 
not necessary to an atonement that the sufferer should ea- 
dure the very same punishment that the guilty were liable 
to, but only such as should show that God would not let 
gin go unpunished. Others have taken advantage of this 
admission to deny the necessity of an atonement at all, and 
hence have opposed the idea of an atonement. This has 
resulted in a still further departure from what I think to be 
truth, and they have taken the position, that if man suffers 
for his sins, himself, that is all-sufficient ; and that his suf- 
ferings are bounded by this life, or at most, to a very limit- 
ed period in a future state, after which he will have an eter- 
nity of happiness. 

Now, all this confusion and conjecture, for I can give it 
no higher name, I conceive, arises from not clearly under- 
standing what man lost by the fall, for himself and posterity. 
Man lost for himself, it is true, holiness and happiness, as 
well as immortality. But for his posterity, in my judg- 
ment, there is not a particle of evidence, in the whole Bible, 
that he lost any thing but immortality. Doctors of Divinity 
have puzzled their own brains, and those of students in 
theology, with laboured efforts to find out what infants need 
to have done for them, and how God does it, to fit them for 
heaven. Long and laboured arguments and inquiries have 
been entered into about the depravity of infants — how they 
are justified — how they are made holy — and whether all of 
them go to heaven, or part to hell, &c. &c. The whole 
of these discussions have only served to make darkness 
darker. The truth, I conceive, is very simple, and that, 
perhaps, is the reason why great men overlook it. It is 
»imply this — Adam lost immortality — and therefore could 
£ot Cv. mmuuicate it to his posterity, any more than an im- 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL ? 



70 



poverished parent could communicate riches to his children ; 
the consequence is, all his posterity are born, not liable to 
eternal conscious being in misery, but liable to perish, to 
lose all life, sense and being ; and what they need, previous 
to personal sins, is simply salvation from perishing, or they 
need immortality, eternal life. 

Hence, all God does, and all that is necessary to be done 
to any soul, before personal transgression, is to have eternal 
life, or immortality, given to soul and body. This God gives 
to all infants who die in infancy, " for of such is the king- 
dom of God and the " gift of God is eternal life" — but 
this gift is " through Jesus Christ our Lord." We see, 
then, from what Christ redeems little children ; it is from 
death, or from perishing, not from eternal life in misery, 
for they were not exposed to that, and, hence, needed no 
redemption from it. 

This view of the subject relieves the mind from the fog 
and confusion thrown over us by the common theory of to- 
tal depravity, and which has so long puzzled theologians as 
well as common people, and rent the churches with contro- 
versy. 

Christ redeemed man from death, or that loss of being 
to which he was exposed, and opened eternal life to all ; or, 
he " abolished death and brought life and immortality to 
light." But that eternal life is the gift of God, through 
Jesus Christ. He gives it to all who die in infancy, with- 
out requiring any thing to be done on their part ; for this 
plain reason, — they were incapable of doing any thing, and 
God requires no improvement of what he has never given. 

But with respect to those who have come to years of un- 
derstanding, the case is different. They are required to act 
faith in the truths revealed to their minds under whatever 
dispensation they may live. Hence under the Gospel, w r e 
are required to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, as he that 
"came down from heaven" to give "life unto the world." 
This is the great test question ; because he that truly re- 
ceives Christ, receives all the other truths connected with 
his mission to earth ; not only so, but he manifests that feith 
by obedience ; so that a true faith is as certainly known by 
the conduct and conversation, as a living man is known 
from a dead carcass. And for a man to pretend that he has 



80 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



faith in Christ, while he does not walk in obedience to all 
tiie known commands of God, is as absurd as to say, that 
the body without the spirit is alive ; or, that a sick man has 
faith in a physician whom he refuses to employ, and whose 
directions he will not follow. 

I conceive, all the " evil nature," about which there has 
been so much discussion in the world, that man inherits 
from Adam, is a dying nature ; the entire man perishing. 
Christ came, that man " might not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life :" adults by believing in him ; i. e., receive him 
as the heaven-appointed dispenser of life. And he that will 
not thus come to Christ, will not have life, but will perish 
forever ; — and perish too under an insupportable weight of 
guilt for having rejected life ; preferring the pleasures of 
sin, or the things of time and sense, to the enjoyment of 
eternal life. They have their choice — they chose their good 
things in this world, and when they leave it, they are re- 
served unto the judgment to be tried and punished. 

They have passed the bounds where that life might have 
been secured ; and there remains for them, now, nothing 
but "a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion, which shall devour" [as the word means, " to eat up" 
— "destroy" — "to annihilate,"] "the adversaries." 

I had no intention, at this time, of going into a long and 
laboured argument on the subject of depravity. I designed 
only to throw out a few thoughts to show you the bearing 
of the subject I have had so long under discussion, on other 
points of doctrine that have been considered obscure and 
difficult, and which have cost immense labour to the learned 
to make plain to common minds, and which, after all that 
has been said and written, have remained obscure. 

Now if the view I have taken, with regard to man's ex- 
posedness to perish, to die, i. e., to lose all life, sense, and 
being, is true, I appeal to the understanding of all, if it does 
not at once make plain the long obscure subject of " inhe- 
rent depravity ?" What is it ? Why simply this — Every 
child of iVdam inherits a perishing, dying nature, i. e., soul and 
body both are perishing, or have no principle of immortality 
in them. Adam could communicate no other, as he lost immor- 
tality, i. e., his title to it, the day he sinned, and could only re- 
gain it for himself, personally, by a personal act of faith : but 



ARE THE WICKED IMMORTAL? 



81 



that act of faith did not make immortality inherent in him, 
that being in Christ alone, and of course, the whole of Adam, 
separate from Christ, and by natural tendency, was dying, 
perishing, tending to utter destruction of being. This being 
the case, he could communicate no other nature to his pos- 
terity. By Adam, therefore, " all were dead i. e., the 
natural tendency of all born of him was to perish, in the 
sense of ceasing to be. Christ " died for all first, that all 
who leave this world in infancy, or prior to personal trans- 
gression, might have eternal life, and not perish. How 
glorious does this view of the subject make Christ appear 
in his relation to little children ! No wonder he took them 
in his arms and blessed them, and said — " Suffer little chil- 
dren to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is 
the kingdom of heaven." And eternally, in glory, will 
those who die in infancy praise him who redeemed them 
from death — and saved them from perishing. 

Second — Christ died for all, " that whosoever believeth in 
him (i. e. who are capable of the exercise of faith,) " might 
not perish, but have everlasting life." Adults then pass 
from death, i. e., from condemnation to death, unto life, 
through, or by faith in Christ — and thus are said to be 
born again ; as that which is born of the flesh, i. e., of cor- 
ruptible, perishing man, is flesh — perishing, corruptible, 
like him from whom he sprung ; so, that which is born of 
the spirit, i. e., of the spiritual, living Adam, Christ, is spirit, 
is alive ; or, hath eternal life ; according to the Scripture 
which saith, " he that hath the Son hath life," whilst " he 
that hath not the Son hath not life." 

If I mistake not, then, the true state of the case is this. 
— All men, in consequence of being the offspring of Adam, 
are destitute of immortality ; God has given his Son Jesus 
Christ, to die for us, that we might not perish, except by 
our own fault. He takes care to give eternal life to all who 
are incapable of choosing it for themselves. Those who 
are capable of making the choice, he sets " life and death 
before" them, and calls upon them to " choose life," that 
they " may live ;" — if they will not come to Christ that they 
may have life, they pass on and perish, but they perish un- 
der an insupportable load of guilt and shame, for having 
preferred the things of this life to eternal life. 



APPENDIX. 



The notion that there is life in the soul of the wicked, or 
< principle that cannot die, was taken from the Platonic 
Philosophers, and was introduced into the Church, as a 
Scripture doctrine, in the third century. 

Mosheim, in his Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I. p. 86, 
says : — " Its first promoters argued from that known doc- 
trine of the Platonic School, which was also adopted by 
Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused 
through all human souls ; or in other words, that the faculty 
of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the 
mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, 
and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all 
truth human and divine." 

Such, I conceive, is the true origin of the doctrine of the 
natural immortality of the soul. It originated in heathen 
philosophy, and was grafted on to Christianity to its im- 
mense injury. No wonder Paul, Col. 2 : 8, said — " Beware 
lest any man spoil you through PHILOSOPHY and vain 
deceit, after the Traditions of men, after the rudiments of 
this world, and not after Christ." 

The Psalmist says, 37th Psa. £0th verse : " The wicked 
shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the 
fat of lambs ; they shall consume ; into SMOKE shall they 
consume away." Compare this with Isa. 41 : 11, 12 : " Be- 
hold all they that were incensed against thee shall be asham- 
ed and confounded ; they shall be as nothing ; and they 
that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, 
and shalt not find them, even them that contended with 
thee ; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as 
A THING OF NOUGHT." Compare this with Psa. 92 : 
7 : M When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all 
the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be 
DESTROYED FOR EVER." In view of this truth the 
Psalmist said, 104th Psa. 35th verse : " Let the sinners 
[literally, the sinners shall] be consumed out of the earth, 
and let the wicked [literally, the wicked shall] be NO 
MORE." In view of such a result, he cries out — " Bless 
the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord." 

The proof from such texts is too positive, in my mind, to 
admit of a doubt but that the wicked will die— cease to 
have existence, after their resurrection. Then they will 
experience the "second death" and be found "NO MORE 
AT ALL." (82) 



No. 1. 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE, 

OR, STATE OF THE DEAD FROM DEATH TO THE 
RESURRECTION. 

By George Storrs. 

I consider the intermediate state of the dead to be a topic 
of some importance, as upon a proper understanding of this 
subject depends, in a great measure, correct views of the 
resurrection of the dead ; for, it must be manifest that if 
only a part of man dies, there can be no resurrection of man, 
only in part ; but, do the Scriptures countenance any other 
idea than that the vihole man is raised from the dead ? 

First, then — Let us inquire what is death ? 

Milton, the author of "Paradise Lost," says: "The 
common definition which supposes it to consist in the sepa- 
ration of soul and body, is inadmissible. For," he inquires, 
" what part of man is it that dies when this separation takes 
place ? Is it the soul ? This will not be admitted by the 
supporters of the above definition. Is it then the body ? But 
how can that be said to die which never had any life in 
itself? Therefore," he adds, "the separation of soul and 
body cannot be called the death of man." 

But we can hardly approach this subject without the cry 
of heresy or infidelity being raised. — In the same way the 
Pope might have kept the Reformers in eternal silence, if 
they had feared his denunciations. Allow me to give an- 
other extract from Milton on the above subject. He in- 
quires : — 

" Is it the whole man, or the body alone that is deprived 
of vitality ?" He adds — "As this is a subject which may be 
discussed without endangering our faith or devotion, which- 
ever side of the controversy we espouse, I shall freely de 
clare what seems to me the true doctrine, as collected from 
numberless passages of Scripture, without regarding the 
opinion of those who think that truth is to be sought in the 
schools of philosophy, rather than in the sacred writings.' 
See Milton's Treatise on Christian Doctrines, 

(3) 



4 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



This work of Milton's I never saw till lately. I am so 
much pleased with his views on this subject that the reader 
will excuse me if I occasionally make an extract from him ; 
and I feel the more inclined to do it because I have been 
denounced as an infidel for holding sentiments, on the sub- 
ject, which I now find were held by one whom multitudes 
of Christians have delighted to honour. 

I shall endeavour to show, from the Scriptures of truth, 
that the whole man, whatever are his component parts, suf- 
fers privation of life, in what we call death. 

Turn to the account of man's creation, Gen. 2 : 7. "And 
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became 
a living soul." God said to this man, this ' ' living soul," 
without excepting any part of him, " But of the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Or, 
as the margin reads, "Dying THOU shalt die." What 
part of man is excepted in this denunciation ? Surely no 
part. To say, the mind, which was principal in the offence, 
was exempt from death is an absurdity ; or, to make its 
death to be no more than a state of unhappiness, in my 
judgment, is doing violence to the testimony of God. That 
unhappiness was involved, as a consequence of sin, is ad- 
mitted ; but, that that was the 'penalty for transgression is 
denied. The penalty is death. In explaining the penalty 
God himself says to man, Gen. 3 : 19, "In the sweat of thy 
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; 
or out of it wast THOU taken : for dust thou art, and unto 
lust shalt thou return." Compare this with Job 7: 21, 
M For now shall I sleep in the dust," &c. And the angel 
says to Daniel, chap. 12: 2, "Many of them that sleep in 
the dust of the earth shall awake," &c. It was to the whole 
man that his Maker said, " Dying thou shalt die ;" and at 
death there is a cessation of all consciousness, as truly as 
that man had no consciousness before his creation : if it 
were not so it would not be death, but only a change in the 
mode of man's life. But we will proceed in the Scripture 
testimony. 

The doctrine that the whole man sunk in death was held 
by the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. Jacob says, Gen. 
37 : 35, "I will go down into the grave unto my son mourn- 
ing." Job 3: 12-19, says, " Why did the knees prevent 
me ? or why the breasts that I should suck ? For now 
should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: 
then had I been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the 
earth, which built desolate places for themselves j or with 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



5 



princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver : or 
as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which 
never saw light. There the wicked cease from troubling ; 
and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest 
together ; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The 
small and great are there ; and the servant is free from his 
master." Also Job 14: 10-12, " But man dieth, and 
wasteth away ; yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is 
he ? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decay- 
eth and drieth up : So man lieth down, and riseth not : till 
the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised 
out of their sleep" See chap. 17: 13, " If I wait, the grave 
is mine house ;" also 16th verse, " They shall go down to 
the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust." 
David deprecates the approach of death — and why, if he is 
going at once into the presence of God ? For he himself 
tells us, in God's "presence is fulness of joy ;" and yet he 
speaks in the following strains, Ps. 6 : 5, " For in death 
there is no remembrance of thee : in the grave who shall 
give thee thanks?" Again, Psa. 88: 10-12, "Wilt thou 
show wonders to the dead ? shall the dead arise and praise 
thee ? Selah. Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the 
grave ? or thy faithfulness in destruction ? Shall thy won- 
ders be known in the dark ? and thy righteousness in the 
land of forgetfulness ?" Surely this is strong language ; but 
again he says, Psa. 115: 17, "The dead praise not the 
Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Surely such 
language as this cannot be consistent with the common 
theory in regard to the state of the dead. And that David 
was not mistaken, Peter affirms in Acts 2 : 34, " For David 
is not ascended into the heavens." Now David could not, 
it seems to me, so earnestly desire to live longer on the 
earth if he believed the moment of his death would put him 
in possession of the immediate presence and glory of God ; 
and besides, he declares, Psa. 17 : 15, "I shall be satisfied 
when I awake in thy likeness." Now if this was before the 
resurrection, then David would be satisfied without a resur- 
rection : if it was not till after the resurrection, then David 
would be in the presence of God, where " is fulness of joy," 
and yet not be satisfied, because he had not yet had his 
resurrection: i. e. he could have fulness of joy and not 
be satisfied, if the common notion of the consciousness of 
the dead be true. 

Hezekiah says, Isa. 38 : 18, 19, " For the grave cannot 
praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down 
into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the 
living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day." Surely if 



0 



BIBLE EXAMINES. 



men go immediately to heaven, who die in the Lord, Heze- 
kiah could have praised the Lord in " nobler strains" to be 
dead than alive ; but he evidently did not understand the 
doctrine of souls living while their bodies were dead. 

Our Lord told his disciples. John 14 : 3, ''And if I so and 
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you 
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 
Christ does not come again at death. This is evident from 
John 21 : 22. 23, " Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he 
tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? Follow thou me. 
Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that 
disciple should not die : yet Jesus said not unto him, He 
shall not die : but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what 
is that to thee ?" Here it is clear that the disciples under- 
stood that those to whom the Lord should come would not 
die ; and hence they did not believe that the Lord comes at 
a man's death. Our Lord then, in the text, 14th chap., 
spoke of his coming at the resurrection, to receive his people; 
at which time they will "see him as he is" and " be like 
him ;" 1 John 3 : 2. Surely they will not be " like Jam" 
till they have their resurrection bodies ; or, till their "vile 
body" is " fashioned like unto his glorious body." Phil. 3 : 
21. Again, 1 Corin. 15 : 32, Paul says — lk If after the man- 
ner of men I have fought wirh beasts at Ephesus, what ad- 
vantageth it me, if the dead rise not ? let us eat and drink ; 
for to-morrow we die." That is, die altogether ; for, if that 
is not the meaning, there is no force in what he says. He 
evidently makes our entire future existence to depend on 
the resurrection of the dead. His reasoning, in the remain- 
ing part of that chapter, is entirely on the supposition that 
there are only two states — the corruptible and the incorrupt- 
ible — death and the resurrection; not a word does he hint 
of an intermediate state of consciousness. j\ ot only so, but 
Paul declares, 2 Timothy 4 : 8, that he does not expect his 
" crown of righteousness" till the day of Christ's " appear- 
ing;" which day, he tells us, in the same connection, 1st 
verse, is when our Lord shall come to 44 judge the quick and 
the dead." 

That the soul and spirit die, or cease to have conscious- 
ness with the body, may be further proved from such texts 
as the following: 1 Cor. 5:5. That the spirit may be 
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus:" not in the day of 
death, but "in the day of the Lord." Job 33: IS. " He 
keepeth back his soul from the pit." Psa. 22: 20, "De- 
liver my soul from the sword." Psa. 78: 50, " He spared 
not their soul from death." Psa. 89 : 48. " Shall he deliver 
his soul from the hand of the grave." Psa. 94 : 17, " Un- 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



7 



less the Lord had been my help, my soul had quickly [mar- 
gin] dwelt in silence." Isaiah 38 : 17, " Thou hast, in love 
to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption." — Ezek. 
18 : 20, " The soul that sinneth it shall die." 

The soul of our Lord Jesus Christ was, for a short time, 
subject to death for our sins. Compare Psa. 16 : 10, " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell [grave] ; neither wilt thou 
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption," with Acts 2: 31 — 
David " seeing this before spake of the resurrection of 
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [the grave] , neither 
his flesh did see corruption." Peter adds, " This Jesus 
hath God raised up." — Not his body merely, but " this 
Jesus" himself. And our Lord himself says, Matt. 26: 38, 
" My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." — Yea, 
"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures"-— 
Yea, God made " HIS SOUL an offering for sin." See 
1 Corin. 15 : 3, and Isa. 53 : 10. 

By overlooking the true Scriptural doctrine of death, 
teachers of religion have bewildered themselves and others 
in endless speculations as to the nature of Christ's sufferings, 
and how those sufferings could be an atonement for sin : and 
they have speculated till they have driven many into an 
entire denial of Christ's dying for us. — Our Lord Jesus 
experienced the very same death that Adam and his posteri- 
ty were subject to in consequence of the original apostacy of 
man. — Adam and his posterity by necessity, as a punish- 
ment for sin — Christ voluntarily, " that by means of death, 
for the redemption of the transgressions under the first tes- 
tament, they which are called might receive the promise of 
eternal inheritance ;" Heb. 9: 15, which promised inherit- 
ance is "eternal life;" for, "this is the record, that God 
has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son," 1 John 
5:11; who, by his death and resurrection, " hath abolished 
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light ;" both 
of which, [life and immortality] , by death, were hid from 
man's sight: but Christ was manifest in the flesh "that 
through death he might destroy him that hath the power of 
death, that is the .devil: and deliver them who through fear 
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. 
2:14,15. 

The Scriptures do not make death a deliverer, as it would 
be, if the saints go immediately into the presence of God, 
but they uniformly point us to the coming of Christ and the 
resurrection of the dead. Saith our Saviour, John 5 : 28, 
29, " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the 
graves" [not in heaven or hell, but in their graves'] " shall 
near his voice and come forth," &c. "In this passage," 



8 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



Bays Milton, " those who hear, those who come forth, are 
all described as being in the graves, the righteous as well as 
the wicked." 

Again, 1 Corinth. 15 : 52, " The trumpet shall sound and 
the dead shall be raised." These dead, Paul had previously 
told us, are they that sleep in Jesus; v. 18. "In such a 
sleep," says Milton, " I should suppose Lazarus to have 
been lying, if it were asked whither his soul betook itself 
during those four days of death. The words of Christ 
themselves," he adds, " lead to this conclusion: John 11 : 
11, 13, ' our friend Lazarus sleepeth ; but I go that I may 
awake him out of sleep : howbeit Jesus spake of his death ;' 
which death, if the miracle were true, must have been real. 
This," Milton continues, "is confirmed by the circum- 
stances of Christ's raising him ; v. 43 ; ' he cried with a loud 
voice, Lazarus, come forth.' If the soul of Lazarus, that is, 
if Lazarus himself was not within the grave, why did Christ 
call on the lifeless body which could not hear? If it were 
the soul he addressed, why did he call it from a place where 
it was not ? Had he intended to intimate that the soul was 
separated from the body, he would have directed his eyes to 
the quarter whence the soul of Lazarus might be expected 
to return, — namely, from heaven : for to call from the grave 
what is not there, is like seeking the living among the 
dead, which the angel reprehended as ignorance among the 
disciples, Luke 24 : 5." 

With one more extract from Milton I will close this part 
of the subject, and then take up more fully objections. On 
1 Pet. 3 : 19, " By w 7 hich also he went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison," Milton says, " literally, in guard, or, 
as the Syriac version renders it, in sepulchres, in the grave, 
which means the same ; for the grave is the common guar- 
dian of all till the day of judgment. What therefore the 
apostle says more fully, chap. 4 : 5, 6, ' who shall give 
account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the 
dead ; for, for this cause was the gospel preached also to 
them that are dead,' he expresses it in this place by a meta- 
phor, 1 the spirits that are in guard ;' it follows therefore 
that the spirits are dead." 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

1. It is said — Our Lord told the thief " To-day shalt thou 
be with me in paradise." 

If by to-day we are to understand that literal day that our 
Lord hung upon the cross, it is not so easy to prove that it 
took place, from the fact that three days afterwards the 
"same Jesus" told Mary, John 20: 17; "I am not yet 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



9 



ascended to my Father." So, then, the thief could not have 
been in paradise with Christ before our Lord himself had 
ascended. But if by to-day is only to be understood quickly, 
or in a short time, it may be answered, that at Jesus' resur- 
rection " many of the saints that slept arose, and came out 
of their graves after his [Christ's] resurrection." Christ 
was the " first born from the dead among many brethren." 
See Col. 1: 18, and Rom. 8: 29. Thus the promise of 
Christ was fulfilled to the thief, if he was among those who 
arose with the Saviour. 

But again. The punctuation in our Bibles is not inspira 
tion, but the work of men. Then this text may be read 
thus ; " Verily, I say unto thee to-day ; Thou shalt be with 
me in paradise." Or, as some of the Greek copies of the 
New Testament read the thief's prayer — 44 Lord, remember 
me in the day of thy coming" The answer then is — Verily, 
I say unto thee, this day [i. e. this day of Christ's coming, 
of which the thief had spoken] thou shalt be with me in 
paradise. 

It was an assurance to the thief that his prayer was ac- 
cepted ; and that in the day that our Lord should come into 
his kingdom the supplicant should have a part in it. 

2. It is said — " Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, 
&c. ; and therefore, he must have believed in the conscious 
state of those who have left the body." But we will let 
Paul explain himself. He says, Phil. 1 : 23 — "I am in a 
strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ ; which is far better." Compare this with 2 Cor. 5 : 
1 to 8 — " For we know, that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in 
this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upo:i with our 
house which is from heaven ; if so be that being clothed we 
shall not be found naked; for we that are in this tabernacle 
do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be un- 
clothed, but clothed upon, that MORTALITY might be 
swallowed up of life." 

Here the apostle shows, that his desire was not to be 
unclothed, or to be a " disembodied spirit," but to be clothed 
upon with his house from heaven ; for, " this mortal shall 
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Now, 
it was for this the apostle waited ; and that was what he 
desired, as may further be seen by Rom. 8: 23, — " We 
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, 
to wit, the redemption of our BODY." From all this, it 
appears to me, it is evident that Paul's desire was to be 



10 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



absent from the mortal body and to be present with the 
Lord, not in an unclothed state, but in his heavenly, or im- 
mortal body. This state the apostle did not expect till the 
appearing of Christ, as is evident from 2 Timothy 4 : 8, — 
There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear- 
ing" ■ All the saints are to have their crowns at the Lord's 
appearing. 

3. It is said — " Moses and Elias appeared with our Lord 
at his transfiguration, and therefore they must have been in 
a conscious state." That I admit. Elijah was translated 
and did not die. As to Moses, it seems likely that he was 
raised from the dead, from the consideration that Jude tells 
us, 9th verse, that Michael had a dispute, about the body of 
Moses, with the devil. Now what was that dispute ! My 
opinion is this : The devil had no clear idea of the resurrec- 
tion, and supposed that all the human family that he could 
bring under the power of death had perished for ever. Up 
to the time of Moses, one only, viz. Enoch, had escaped 
death. Satan, in his own estimation, had proved thus far a 
most triumphant conqueror. He saw Moses, like Enoch, 
walking with God, and doubtless expected that he too would 
be translated, that he should not see death ; but Moses 
committed a trespass at the waters of Meribah, and the Lord 
told him he should die. What malicious joy must have 
filled the devil's heart when he heard that Moses was to die ! 
such a triumph Satan had hardly anticipated. Next Satan 
sees of Moses he stands in the presence of God. As he had 
no knowledge of the resurrection, how natural in his " con- 
tention" with Michael, would it be for the devil to accuse 
God with falsehood ! As though he should say — " God 
said Moses should die, but he did not, for there he stands in 
the presence of God." Michael did not inform the adver- 
sary that Moses had been raised from the dead, but simply 
said, " The Lord rebuke thee." 

That Moses was raised from the dead is strongly probable, 
from the fact that he was an eminent type of Christ. See 
Deut. 18 : 15, 18 — " The Lord thy God will raise up unto 
thee a Prophet — like unto me" &c. The probability thai - 
Moses was raised from the dead is quite as strong as the 
conjecture of our commentators, that the devil wanted to 
find the body of Moses, to lead the Israelites into idolatry 
with it, and hence disputed with Michael about it. 

If my view is correct, Moses, though he died, was raised 
from the dead, and hence at the transfiguration the kingdom 
of God was presented in miniature; Christ in his glory- 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



11 



Elias, the representative of all that will be changed without 
dying, and Moses, the representative of all that sleep in 
death. 

If it still be urged against this view that the apostle says, 
Col. 1: 18, that Christ is "the first born from the dead," 

1 answer, first — He is the first born from the dead in an 
eminent sense ; that is, upon the certainty of his resurrec- 
tion depended the resurrection of all men : if he, therefore, 
were not raised, none of the dead ever would have been, or 
ever will be. This is the apostle's argument throughout the 
15th chap, of 1st Corinth. 

Again ; it is not true, in an absolute sense, that Christ was 
the first born from the dead ; for Elisha raised the widow's 
jon, of whom it was expressly said " the child was dead;' 11 

2 Kings 4 : 32. Our Lord also raised several from the dead 
before his crucifixion. 

Again, I remark : Our Lord was the first born from the 
dead "among many brethren." He gave assurance, John 
5 : 25, that " The hour is coming and now is, when the 
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they that 
hear shall live." That hour came when our Saviour hung 
on the cross and " cried with a LOUD VOICE — and gave 
up the ghost ;" then " the rocks rent ; and the graves were 
opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 
and came out of the graves after his resurrection," &c. 
This company, I apprehend, constitute the "many bre- 
thren" among whom Christ was " the first born from the 
dead," and are the li first fruit" with "Christ," and the 
pledge of the resurrection of all that sleep in Jesus ' at his 1 
second 1 coming.' 

Hence, we may understand the apostle, not as teaching 
that Christ was the first ever raised from the dead ; but, as 
first, because the resurrection of all others depended upon 
him ; and the first whose personal resurrection quickened 
others to life, even the "many brethren" of whom he speaks. 

4. A brother writes me, saying — " The Saviour saith — 
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 
This, he supposes, disproves my idea of the sleep of the dead 
saints. But if that brother will look at that text with the 
context, I think he will see, first — that the subject of dis- 
course was the resurrection of the saints, and not about an 
intermediate state. Look at the subject, John 11: 23, 26. 
" Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha 
saith unto him, I know he shall rise again in the resurrection 
at the last day." It seems she had no idea that he had gone 
to heaven. ' Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and 
the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 



12 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



[when the resurrection of the last day comes] yet shall h* 
live : and whosoever liveth [or is alive when that day comes] 
and believeth in me, shall never die" — shall not die at all, 
but be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye/ 
See 1 Cor. 15 : 51 , 52. 

Again, this brother says, "The Saviour, to convince th$ 
Sadducees of the certainty of the resurrection, declares that 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were living." 

We do no* always pay that attention to the subject of dis- 
course that we ought in interpreting the Scriptures. Let us 
.ook at this portion of the Bible. Luke 20 : 27 — 38. — The 
Sadducees, who "deny that there is any resurrection ," 
come to our Lord and present what they suppose to be a 
strong case. Our Saviour tells them, that " They that are 
accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection 
from the dead," &c, " can die no more.' 1 ' 1 The expression 
denotes that they had once died. He adds — " Now that the 
dead are [to be] raised, even Moses showed at the bush, 
when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God 
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of 
the dead, [as he would be, if there is to be no resurrection] 
but of the living." Therefore, there will be a resurrection 
of the dead; or else Moses' language does not prove the 
resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is evident 
that there can be no force in the allusion to Moses, unless 
it was brought to prove the resurrection of the dead, and the 
allusion shows us that the life of those patriarchs depended 
upon such resurrection: and "God, w T ho calleth things 
which be not as though they were," [see Rom. 4: 17] 
counted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as living, because they 
shall surely come up in the resurrection to life eternal ; and 
let us not " be ignorant, that one day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day ;" so that 
the time from the death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to 
their resurrection, is as no time with God. Now, if those 
patriarchs were actually then living, how does our Lord's 
appeal to Moses prove the resurrection '/ It might prove the 
existence of spirits, but not the resurrection, the very thing 
it was designed to prove. 

But let us look at this case further. The Sadducees after 
stating the case add — " Therefore in the resurrection whose 
wife of them is she?" It seems there was no difficulty in 
their minds about the intermediate state, though the seven 
nusbands and the wife had all gone into it. If our Lord had 
taught consciousness in the intermediate state, it seems most 
natural to suppose the Sadducees would have inquired : 
f 1 Whose wife is she now ? for they are all alive." But they 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



13 



pass over the intermediate state to the resurrection ; evident- 
ly, to my mind, because no such doctrine was held by the 
Jews, or our Lord, as the dead being conscious till the resur- 
rection. The very idea is a palpable absurdity. The wages 
of sin, and the penalty of the law, is death. And that which 
introduces us into a state, in which, we " know more than 
all the world," as it is said, often, of a man when he dies, 
cannot be death, but a far superior life. I conclude, the 
Scripture testimony is true — " the dead know not any thing" 
If I am called an " infidel" for that, be it so. 

5. It is said — "That the souls of the righteous have a 
sensible state of existence separate from the body, we learn 
from the circumstance of Paul's being caught up to Paradise ; 
he says — 1 Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot 
tell ; God knoweth.' Now, if he had believed in the un- 
conscious state of the dead, he would have supposed that he 
must have been in the body, and of course would have ex- 
pressed no doubt on the subject." 

In reply, I might say — If Paul had believed in a conscious 
state after life had become extinct, and that the spirit of man 
exists separate from the body in a sensible state, " he would 
have supposed that he must have been" out of the body, and 
of course would have expressed no doubts on the subject." 
But his expression, I apprehend, only indicates that the 
revelation was made in such a manner as that man could not 
explain it. 

6. It is said — " That our Lord confirmed the belief that 
the spirit has a conscious state separate from the body, by 
saying to his disciples, after the resurrection, ' Handle me 
and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me 
have.' " The error here, I suppose, is in supposing that our 
Lord must have reference to the spirit of a man. Angels 
are spirits, but have not a body of " flesh and bones ;" yet 
they have, doubtless, bodies in some form, though spiritual. 

7. It is said — Rev. 6 : 9 — 11, proves the conscious being 
of the righteous before the resurrection— " And when he 
had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of 
them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testi- 
mony which they held : and they cried with a loud voice, 
saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not 
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? 
And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it 
was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little 
season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren 
that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." < 

Let me ask the objector — Had those souls any conscious 
being at the time John saw them and heard them ? So 
2 



14 



BIBLE EXAMINER. 



far from it, they were not born, and had no being at all, 
only in the purpose of God, for several hundred years after 
John saw them. It was under the fifth seal, or bloody per- 
secutions of papacy, that John viewed this scene. And the 
prophecy was evidently given for the comfort and encourage- 
ment of Christians that might be called to suffer under the 
papal power. That persecution would be long ; and there 
would, hence, seem to be a disregard, on God's part, to the 
sufferings of the saints ; and they are represented as crying, 
'how long," &c, and their feelings are clearly expressed 
by Isaiah, 49: 14, — " But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken 
me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But God causes it 
to be written for the comfort of his church, in that sorrowful 
age, that he regards all their sufferings, and will in due time 
avenge their blood. The Lord told Cain that — " The voice 
of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the ground." 
Does that prove that Abel's blood had a conscious being 
and a tongue to talk ? The expressions denote no more than 
that God regards whatever his people suffer, and will avenge 
the injuries done to them, though he may seem to delay ; 
and this is written for the comfort of the saints while passing 
through their trials. To suppose the feelings expressed, 
under the fifth seal, by the martyrs, were their feelings 
after they left this world, is to suppose they were not happy, 
if they were conscious ; but in God's " presence there is ful- 
ness of joy ;" and, therefore, the feelings expressed by the 
martyrs, if expressed in words at all, must have been before 
they left this world, and while yet in a state of suffering. 

8. The case of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16, is 
supposed to form an insurmountable objection to the theory 
of the sleep of the dead. I admit there are difficulties in this 
text, but the difficulties are not so great to harmonize this 
with the unconscious state of the dead, previous to the resur- 
rection, as to harmonize the common theory with the mass 
of Scripture testimony that the dead are asleep — that they 
" know not anything," &c. V/ e will now examine this case. 

By parables as well as facts the Bible communicates in- 
struction. In order to a right understanding of the speaker 
or writer, we should first inquire what w T as the object in 
view, or the instruction intended to be imparted. This we 
;an only learn from the text, context, and comparing it with 
other portions of revelation. 

There appear to have been several points intended to be 
impressed upon the people, by our Saviour, in the text now 
under consideration ; and the instruction is the same whether 
it be considered a parable or history of facts. 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE, JJ> 

" That this is only a parable," says Whitby, in his Com- 
mentary on this place, " and not a real history of what wag 
done, is evident; (1.) Because we find this very parable in 
the Germara Bdbylonicum, whence it is cited by Mr. Sher- 
ingham, in the preface to his Joma. (2.) From the circum- 
stances of it, viz. , the rich man's lifting up his eyes in hell, 
and seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom — his discourse with 
Abraham — his complaint of being tormented with flames — 
and his desire that Lazarus might be sent to cool his tongue : 
if all this be confessedly parable, why should the rest, which 
is the very parable in the Germara, be accounted a history ?" 
Lightfoot P also, remarks upon this subject — " Whoever be- 
lieves this not a parable, but a true story, let him believe 
also those little friars, whose trade it is to show the monu- 
ments at Jerusalem to pilgrims, and point exactly to the 
place where the house of the 'rich glutton' stood." The 
outlines of this parable are found in a work, supposed to 
have been written while the Jews were in Babylon, or short- 
ly after, called the " Germara Babylonicum.'" It was, most 
likely, founded on the pagan notion of the future state ; and 
which some portion of the Jews imbibed. Their own Scrip- 
tures revealed no such doctrine. Their intercourse with the 
pagans, during their captivity, would naturally lead some of 
them to imbibe the notions of their masters. 

If it be said, our Lord would not have used a story not 
founded in fact to convey instruction, but would have cor- 
rected the error : I answer, First, There is no evidence that 
the sentiments expressed in the " Germara" were adopted 
to any great extent among the Jews, though the Pharisees, 
to whom our Lord spoke, were doubtless familiar with the 
story. Second, There is no evidence that our Lord ever 
corrected, in positive language, the sentiment, prevalent, to 
some extent among the Jews, of the transmigration of 
souls, borrowed also from the pagans ; and which even 
the disciples had imbibed, as appears from John 9 : 2, where 
they ask — " Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he 
was BORN blind?" 

Those who oppose the unconscious state of the dead, 
maintain that" disembodied spirits" can talk, &c. Let me 
isk them one question : — -Could Lazarus have come back 
and warned the rich man's brethren without being raised from 
.he dead, or without a resurrection ? If you answer, " Fes," 
I reply — It is evident from this very parable that he could 
not : for Abraham says, " If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one ROSE 
from the dead :" which shows, that if Lazarus did go to the 



16 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE* 



rich man's brethren he must have a resurrection from the 
dead to do so. Hence it is evident that ' 1 disembodied spi- 
rits" cannot talk and hold converse with men, and of course 
are not conscious; for angels can, and have appeared to 
men, and talked with them ; and if dead men were con- 
scious they might do the same without a resurrection : but 
Lazarus could not do it unless he "rose from the dead," 
our Lord being judge ; — therefore, our Lord being judge, 
dead men are incapable of making communications to men ; 
hence, this very discourse of our Saviour, instead of proving 
the consciousness of dead men, proves just the reverse. 

The Greek word here translated heU is " hades," which, 
as Wakefield, I think, truly observes, "nowhere means 
hell — gehenna — in any author whatsoever, sacred or profane.'' 1 
It was not, therefore, "beyond the grave," hades— but in 
the grave. Hence, if it is a matter-of-fact case, the rich man, 
in his grave, could see, hear, and talk ! And mark, our 
Saviour does not say his spirit did these things, but the rich 
man himself . Now he had expressly said "the rich man 
died and was buried [literally] in the grave" The Bible 
affirms, in plain and positive language, that there is no know- 
ledge in the grave. See Ecc. 9 : 10. From the point then, 
where our Lord says, the rich man was buried in the grave, 
we have no authority to understand his language in any other 
light than as figurative; like "the voice of thy brother's 
blood crieth to me from the ground ;" or "the stone shall 
cry out of the wall, and the learn out of the timber shall an- 
swer it." Hab. 2 : 11. And we might just as well pretend 
that a stone or beam are conscious, and can talk, as to con- 
tend from the case of the rich man that men are conscious, 
can see, hear, and talk when they are dead and in the grave : 
unless you can first prove, from some plain and positive tes- 
timony in the Bible, that the dead are really not dead. It is 
not unusual, in the Bible, to represent things without life 
as acting and talking. See Isa. 14 : 8. Prov. 8. Psa. 93 : 
3. Judges 9 : 7 — 15. The Pharisees were continually 
crying amidst the miracles the Saviour wrought — "What 
sign showest thou ? What dost thou work ?" By a discourse 
in which our Lord shows the folly of trusting in riches, 
and of trusting in being sons of Abraham, he also preaches 
to them, that such was their hardness of heart, and obstina- 
cy, that if one rose from the dead they would not believe. 
Our Saviour told them, on another occasion, John 5 : 46, 47, 
" Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me. But 
if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my 
words?" In his discourse on the rich man, he tells those 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE. 



I? 



Pharisees — "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead." Let it be remembered, it was the Pharisees that 
our Lord was addressing, in the discourse on the rich man. 
See the 14th and 15th verses of the 16th chapter of Luke. 
"And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all 
these things : and they derided him. And he said unto 
them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men ; but 
God knoweth your hearts ; for that which is highly esteemed 
among men, is abomination in the sight of God." 

Again. If the case of the rich man is to be understood as 
" a matter of fact" case, he must be presented in the resur- 
rection state ; for he has a tongue that he wants cooled, and 
is tormented in a 11 flame. 11 Now, a " disembodied spirit" 
cannot be tormented in a flame, nor has it a tongue that can 
be cooled with " water." 

On this text Milton writes : " Christ, for the sake of the 
lesson to be conveyed, speaks of that as present which was 
not to take place till after the day of judgment, and describes 
the dead as placed in two distinct states," but, "he by no 
means intimates any separation of the soul from the body.' 1 
^—[Treatise on Christian Doctrine. 

9. It is said, Eccl. 12 : 7, " The spirit shall return to God 
who gave it." This text is supposed to form an objection to 
the doctrine of the sleep of the dead. But it is as true of 
the wicked as of the just, that their spirit returns to God. 
So we might prove universal salvation on the principle of 
the objector. Observe : the spirit returns to God who gave 
it. Let me ask, was it in a conscious state before it was 
given ? If not, how can it be proved that it was in a consci- 
ous state after it returns ? I do not see but we might as well 
argue, that because the body has feeling while we have 
life, it must have feeling after it " returns to dust." 

Solomon uses the term "spirit" in the 3d chapter 21st 
verse, to signify, the life. The term has various significa- 
tions ; one of which is, life, or breath. This returns to God, 
and by him is preserved until the resurrection, when the 
body is re-organized, and the breath, or spirit, re-enters it, 
and it stands up, once more, a " living soul." The apostle 
Paul, it seems to me, clearly makes our entire future exist- 
ence to depend on the resurrection; for, he tells us, if the 
dead rise not, "then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ 
are perished.'' 1 They are not perished if they have conscious 
being, even though the body were never raised. 

Ezekiel, 37th chapter, sets this subject in a clear light. 
After the bones had come together, the sinews and flesh 
2* 



18 



BIBLE EXAMINES. 



come upon them, and the skin covered them, he then pro- 
phesied, saying, come from the four winds, 0 breath, and 
breathe upon these slain, that they live — and the breath 
came into them and they lived." Nothing is here said 
about their souls coming from heaven ; but the breath came 
and they lived. That breath had returned to God, at death, 
as "the dust returned to dust;" but was no more in a 
conscious state than the mouldering body, till the resurrec- 
tion ; then the entire man awakes, and "lives again." 

10. A brother, who opposes my views, refers to 1 Thess. 
4: 13, 14. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow 
not, even as others which have no hope. For if ye believe 
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." On this text the 
brother says : " He will not bring their bodies, for they are 
already here and will arise to meet him, instead of being 
brought down with him. It must be some part of the dead 
which God will bring with him. What part it is, which will 
come'then, it is not hard to determine :" i. e. their souls. 

Let us analyze the text, and see if it does not teach the 
doctrine I advocate. What is the doctrine contained in it? 
First : The dead " are asleep." Seco?id : They are not to 
sleep always — for, they shall have a resurrection, just as 
certain as that Christ was raised. Third : The proof of it 
is this : " Jesus died and rose again" — " God BROUGHT 
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ," (See Heb. 13 : 
20,) " even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 
with him:" not from heaven, but "from the dead." Not 
a word does Paul say of their " being brought down with 
him." No. God brought Christ from the dead ; that is the 
apostles' argument ; therefore those that sleep in Jesus, God 
will also bring from the dead ; and of this fact " I would not 
have you to be ignorant, brethren, that ye sorrow not as 
others which have no hope" of a resurrection. The apostle, 
in the verses following, goes on to tell the time when the 
resurrection of them that sleep in Jesus will take place ; viz : 
at the coming of the Lord ; but says not one word about the 
Lord bringing their " souls" from heaven. 

If it be said, The expression, " bring with him," makes 
it necessary to understand it as something done at the same 
time, I answer, the same apostle says, Eph. 2 : 5, God 
" hath quickened us together with Christ." Does that im- 
ply that Paul was quickened at the " same time" that Christ 
rose from the dead ? Surely he was a bloody persecutor 
some years after that. 11 With him," then, signifies no more 



THE INTERMEDIATE STATE, 19 

than the certainty of the event. As God brought Christ, the 
head, from the dead, so the Church, which is Christ's body, 
God will bring with him. They will not remain under the 
power of death seeing God brought up their head. But " If 
Christ be not raised, then they that are fallen asleep in Christ 
are perished." See 1 Cor. 15 : 17, 18. 

I will now give my own opinion in regard to the doctrine 
of an intermediate state of conscious being, between death 
and the resurrection. I believe it to be a Papal corruption 
of the word of God. Papacy commenced pardoning living 
men's sin, but could not make money fast enough that way, 
and so conjured up an intermediate state, in which they 
manufactured their " Purgatory, Limbus Infantum, Limbus 
patrum," &c. Then the people must pay money to the 
priest to baptize their children, to keep their souls out of 
" Limbus Infantum," or that purgatory where they were 
taught ' ' all the souls of unbaptized children would go, until 
original sin is well paid away by the help of holy masses said 
for them." " Money, money, money," now the priest could 
cry, and cry it too to his entire satisfaction; for he had 
manufactured his invisible conscious state, which the blind 
people could not see, and so the priest must be paid to his 
heart's content, or the souls of children and departed friends 
would be retained in purgatory ; and thus a fine field is open 
to gratify the avarice of a corrupt priesthood. And then, 
such a state of consciousness was necessary, into which to 
put departed saints, in order to make intercessors of them, 
and thus open another fruitful field to accumulate money 
and make the ignorant people wonder. Thus the way was 
fully opened for any superstition that the "Man of Sin" 
chose to practise. And how, I pray, can you prove to a 
Papist that it is unavailing for him to ask help of departed 
saints ? You cannot but admit it was right while these saints 
were upon earth, to ask their prayers ; and if, after death, 
they are in a conscious state, and in the presence of God, 
have they not as much power with God as while on earth ? 
And if so, why may we not ask their intercession now as 
while here ? How shall a Papist be answered ? Surely, the 
only Scriptural answer seems to be, — the saints who have 
died are " asleep"- -and 11 the dead know not anything. 11 
Therefore it is as useless to ask their intercession, as it is to 
ask that of a block, or a stone ; and is no better than asking 
the help of any other idol of wood or stone." 

It is true, that the Papists should not be taxed as the 
original propagators of the doctrine of souls living after the 
body is dead ; they only brought the theory to perfection. 



BIBLE EXAMINEE. 



It grew up, as Milton truly intimates, "in the schools of" 
neathen "philosophy." But on that point I may say more 
hereafter. Wherever it originated its fruit has been " evil, 
and only evil, and that continually. 7 ' It has given birth to 
all the Papal worshipping of saints, with all the superstitions 
connected therewith ; it has turned of! the eyes of Christians 
from the hope of the gospel, viz : the personal revelation of 
the Lord from heaven, so that the second coming of our 
blessed Lord has almost ceased to be an object of desire or 
expectation ; and the Christian hope, to a great extent, has 
been changed to an expectation of death, the king of terrors, 
instead of looking for our Lord, the king of peace, from 
heaven to " change our vile bodies." It has led thinking 
men into infidelity, and it has led, and is leading ministers 
and members of the churches into a denial of the resurrec- 
tion of the body. And why should they not deny it? If 
the saints are in a conscious state after death, and of course 
perfectly happy, for what, I pray, do they want to come 
back after their bodies, which have been turned to corrup- 
tion ? If it is answered, " To perfect their happiness," — I 
reply, "In thy presence is fulness of joy." Ps. 16 : 11. 
What more can the saints have than "fulness of joy ?" If 
they go in their disembodied state into the presence of God, 
and are perfectly happy, it would seem, it must be a repul- 
sive idea to think of ever again entering a body w T hich was, 
while in it, a source of trouble, and caused them to "groan." 

How could Paul say, 1 Cor. 15, "If the dead rise not, 
then they that have fallen asleep in Christ are perished V 
if the saints go into a conscious state of blessedness the mo- 
ment they die ? If it be said, Paul means their bodies are 
perished, I reply, one would think that was no great cause 
of regret, if their souls are perfectly happy without their 
bodies. It seems to me, that Paul intended to teach — that 
our entire future existence depends on a resurrection from 
the dead ; and if there be no resurrection, then, at death, 
man ceases to have existence, and will live no more for ever. 

This intermediate conscious state, I apprehend, is what 
has entirely hid the glory of the resurrection from the minds 
of men, and led many ministers and others to deny that there 
is any resurrection of the body ; and I should not think 
strange, if the world does not come to an end soon, if the 
churches, so called, should deny altogether, that there is 
any resurrection of the dead ; or take the ground that " the 
resurrection is past, already ;" that is, say, " a man receives 
his resurrection body when he dies, and never returns for 
the body he put oft' at death;" thus "overthrowing the 
faith of some.' 1 See 2 Tim. 2 : 18. 



THE STATE OP THE DEAD. — No. % 



" TO DIE IS GAIN." — Phil. 1 : 21. 

The above expression is one of the main pillars, if not the 
main one, that is relied upon to disprove the doctrine that 
* the dead know not anything" I shall now suggest an in- 
terpretation of this phrase, differing from any of my previ- 
ous thoughts. 

Begin at the 12th verse of the 1st chap. Phil. " I would 
ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have 
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the FUR- 
THERANCE of the gospel; so that MY BONDS in 
[margin—" for"] Christ are manifest in all the palace, [Cae- 
sar's court] and in all other places. And many of the bre- 
thren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are MUCH 
MORE BOLD to speak the word without fear. Some in- 
deed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some of 
good will. The one preach Christ of contention, not sin- 
cerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds ; but the other 
of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gos- 
pel. What then ? notwithstanding every way, whether in 
pretence or in truth, CHRIST is preached; and I therein 
rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice. For I know that this shall 
turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of 
the spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expec- 
tation and my hope, and that in nothing I shall be ashamed, 
but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ 
shall be MAGNIFIED in my body, whether by LIFE OR 
DEATH. For to me to live, is Christ, [is to "magnify" 
Christ,] and " to die is gain," to Christ and his gospel; as 
hitherto "the things which have happened unto me have 
fallen out unto the furtherance of the gospel," so I shall 
"magnify" Christ still, even if I " die" for him." 

In the previous verses the apostle had declared that all 
which had befallen him hitherto had only tended to further 
the gospel ; and at the 20th verse, he expresses his strong 
confidence that still, " Christ shall be magnified" in him, 
"whether it be by life, or by death." Thus he expresses 
his purpose to magnify his Master at all events — whether it 
was by living to labour and suffer for Christ, or by dying for 
his cause : either way he was determined Christ should be 
magnified. In the next verse he expresses the same conn- 



dence, that whichever it should be, that such would be th® 
result— his Lord would get glory to himself: hence he says, 
44 For to me to live is Christ,'"' [to magnify Christ] 44 and 
to die is gain." — 44 Gain" for whom ? I answer, for Christ ; 
for, thereby Christ will be magnified even more than by my 
life, or he will not suffer me to die ; for he has the keys of 
death ; and so long as he sees he can be more magnified by 
my life than by my death, so long my life will be continued ; 
but when he sees that it would be "gain" to his cause for 
me to die, a martyr, then I shall magnify him by death. 
44 But if I live in the flesh, [a corruptible state] this is the 
fruit of my labour," [what is the fruit of his labour ? suffer- 
ing and pain] 44 yet what I shall choose I wot [know] not. 
For I am in a strait betwixt two," [ 44 betwixt two" what? 
Do you say, whether to live or die ? I think not, but] 
44 having a desire to depart and be with Christ ; which is far 
better," than either to live in the flesh or die. The contrast, 
I apprehend, was not between life or death, but between 
life and death on the one hand, and being with Christ on the 
other. If he could have his choice, he would desire that 
44 mortality might be swallowed up of life," when he should 
44 be with Christ," in preference to living in this corruptible 
state, or dying. It was in other words, 44 immortality ," that 
Paul desired — a perfect deliverance from corruption and 
death both : knowing that when he 4 4 who is our life shall 
appear, then'' he should 44 appear with him in glory." Hence 
he was looking for the Lord Jesus from heaven, to change 
his vile body, as he says in the third chapter of the same 
Epistle. And he further says, that at present, while in this 
corruptible state, he labours and suffers — 44 If by any means 
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." This 
shows that Paul was looking not to death for deliverance, or 
to be with Christ, but to the resurrection, or a change of the 
vile body, which would be equivalent. 

I think the meaning of the 21st verse is expressed in the 
above paraphrase, and is, as if the apostle had said — 

44 If I live I shall magnify Christ; and if I die Christ 
shall gain still greater glory in me, or by me." It expresses 
the perfect confidence raul had in leaving himself entirely 
in the hand of his Lord and Saviour : — whatever befell him, 
Christ would be magnified, 44 whether by life or death;" 
md such was his entire devotion and consecration to his Re- 
deemer, that he should be perfectly satisfied, whether it was 
ordered that he should die or live, and he knew not which 
to choose ; but he had a desire to depart from this corrupti- 
ble state, or have his vile body changed, and be with Christ 
which was far better than either to live here or die. 



THE STATE OF THE DEAD. -No. 3. 

" Gehenna, 1 '' the Greek word translated "Hell," and 
used in the New Testament in relation to the punishment 
of the wicked, a learned author says, ''Does not occur in 
the Septuagent Greek of the Old Testament, nor in any- 
classic author in the world. The term does not occur in any 
letter or communication to the Gentiles. It was understood 
by the Jews and employed only in discourses with them. It 
occurs 12 times in the New Testament : 7 times in Matt. ; 
3 times in Mark ; once in Luke ; and once in James. Three 
of the these the term appears to be used figuratively ; viz., 
Matt. 5 : 22 ; 23 : 15 ; and James 3:6." 

The places where this word occurs are Matt. 5 : 22, 29, 
30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33. Mark 9 : 43, 45, 47. Luke 
12:5. James 3: 6. 

1 4 Hades," is a Greek word which occurs eleven times in 
the New Testament, and is ten times translated " hell," and 
once "grave," viz., 1 Cor. 15 : 55. It is found in the follow- 
ing texts, viz., Matt. 11 : 23 ; 16: 18. Luke 10 : 15 ; 16: 23. 
Acts 2: 31, 27. Rev. 1 : 18 ; 20 : 13, 14. 

The Hebrew word " Sheol," of the same import as hades, 
used in the Old Testament, is translated "hell" 31 times. 
It never signifies a place of torment. How would it sound 
in the mouth of Jacob to translate " Sheol," "hell?" See 
Gen. 37 : 35. "I will go down into hell [Sheol] unto my son 
mourning." Was Joseph, if dead, in a place of torment ? 
And was Jacob so unreconciled that he wished to go into 
that place of torment also ? Our translators saw the absurd- 
ity of such a translation, and rendered it "grave ;" a per- 
fectly correct translation. 

Dr. Campbell says : — " Before the Captivity, and the Ma- 
cedonian and Roman conquests, the Jews observed the most 
profound silence upon the state of the dead, as to their hap- 
piness or misery. They spoke of it simply as a state of si- 
lence, darkness, and inactivity. But after the Hebrews min- 
gled with the Greeks and Romans they insensibly slided 
into their use of terms, and adopted some of their ideas on 
such subjects as those on which their oracles were silent. 
Even Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, adopts their word 
' tartarus.' 2 Pet. 2:4. In the original it is neither Ge 
henna nor Hades, but Tartarus." Peter was writing to con- 
verted Gentiles. That accounts for his using that term. Dr. 
Campbell says: — " The gates of hades [the grave] is a very 
natural periphrasis for death." He adds — " We have suffi 
cient evidence, sacred and profane, that this is its meaning." 

" Tartarus" signifies, rather, a place of imprisonment. 



From the foregoing facts, several thoughts arise : — 
First. There is no evidence in the Old Testament of any 
conscious existence between death and the resurrection. God 
made no revelation to the posterity of Jacob of any such 
doctrine. 

Second. The doctrine of the intermediate conscious state 
of the dead is a pagan fable, derived from the Greeks and 
Romans. 

Third. The Old Testament teaches that the dead are si- 
lent, inactive, and without knowledge. "In Sheol there is 
no knowledge." Ecc. 9 : 10. 

Fourth. "Gehenna," the term sometimes employed in 
.he New Testament in speaking of the punishment of the 
wicked, was used only in discourses with the Jews, who 
were perfectly familiar with its meaning, and could not well 
understand it in any other sense than that of utter destruc- 
tion. The word is derived from " Ge" — valley — and " Hin~ 
nom," the name of a man. Divines studiously keep the 
true reference of the term " hell fire" — " gehenna" — out of 
sight. Says The Polymicrian Greek Lexicon to the New 
Testament, " Gehenna, properly the valley of Hinnom, 
south of Jerusalem ; once celebrated for the horrid worship 
of Moloch, and afterwards polluted with every species of filth, 
as well as the carcases of animals, and dead bodies of male- 
factors ; to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence 
which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires 
were kept burning." 

The incorrigible sinner, like the filth about Jerusalem, 
and the dead bodies of malefactors, if not utterly consumed, 
would keep alive the plague in the universe ; hence, they 
shall be "cast into Gehenna — hell-fire." Fear him who is 
able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna 1 ' — hell. Mat. 
10 : 28. 

Lastly. The glorious thought is presented, that though the 
"gates of hades" — the grave — for a time close their iron 
folds, and seem to say, we shall hold fast the sleeping church, 
yet our blessed Lord declares that power shall be broken — ■ 
that "the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it." 
A cheering thought truly. Some have slumbered long un- 
der the power of the grave, but Jesus will shortly descend 
from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump 
of God — then burst ye gates of "hades" — the grave — you 
can hold your victims no longer — your iron folds and bars 
become like the flaxen cords on Sampson's arms that were 
<is though burnt with fire. Triumphing, then, shall a re- 
deemed Church stand up, made like her glorious head, to 
die no more. Blessed day — may it soon arrive. "Come 
Lord Jesus." 



THE STATE OF THE BEAD. -No. 4. 

Eccl. 12 : 7, has often been quoted in proof that there is in 
man a spirit that remains conscious when he is dead — " Then 
shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit 
["breath" "life" for so the original word signifies] shall 
return to God who gave it." This is as true of the wicked 
man as of the good ; and it just as truly proves universal 
salvation as it proves that a man is alive when he is dead. 
But until it can be proved that this spirit, whatever it is, had 
consciousness before God gave it to man, it never can be 
proved, from this text, that it has consciousness after it re- 
turns whence it came. The natural inference is, that the 
spirit returns to the same state that it was before man had 
consciousness. Every man knows he had no consciousness 
prior to his present organization, yet his spirit — life, breath — 
came from God and returns to God, as his body came from 
the ground and returns to the earth : and there is nothing in 
this text that can prove that that which returns to God has 
consciousness any more than the body has feeling when it 
returns to the earth. But to settle that point, the same 
writer, in the 9th chap. 5th verse, positively declares that, 
" the dead know not anything and a mere inference drawn 
from the language of a writer, must fall before a positive 
declaration of the same writer that the inference is false. 

If the doctrine of an immediate entrance into conscious 
delight, at death, is taught in the Old Testament, why did 
men of God deprecate death ? Let us note two or three 
examples. Isa. 38:1 — 5. "In those days was Hezekiah 
sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, 
came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, 
Set thine house in order ; for thou shalt die and not live. 
Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed 
unto the Lord, and said, Remember now, O Lord, I be- 
seech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and 
with a perfect heart, and have done that mhich is good in 
thy sight : and Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word 
of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus 
saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard 
thy prayer, I have seen thy tears : behold. I will add unto 
thy days fifteen years." After his recovery he praises God 
for his mercy. He says, "Thou hast iri love to my soul 
delivered it from the pit of corruption : the grave cannot 
praise thee ; death cannot celebrate thee : they that go down 
into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, 
he shall praise, thee, as I do this day." This case shows that 



if the doctrine of conscious enjoyment, when men are dead 
is true, Hezekiah did not understand it. 

David says, Psa. 6 : 5 — " For in death there is no remem- 
brance of thee : in the grave who shall give thee thanks ?" 
Psa. 88 : 10—12. " Wilt thou show wonders to the dead ? 
Shall the dead arise and praise thee ? Shall thy loving kind- 
ness be declared in the grave ? Shall thy wonders be known 
in the dark ? and thy righteousness in the land of forge tful- 
ness?" Psa. 115:17. "The dead praise not the Lord, 
neither any that go down into silence." The expressions 
^show David's view of the state of the dead. Could he have 
said these things had he believed that " the dead know more 
than all the world ?" He says, Psa. 17 : 15, " As for me, 1 
will behold thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, 
when I awake, with thy likeness;" not before. Hence, he 
could not have believed that he should immediately enter 
into the presence of God; because he says, Psa. 16111, 
" Thou wilt show me the path of life : in thy presence is 
fulness of joy ; at thy right hand there are pleasures for ever- 
more." If Christians enter at death into the presence of 
God, in conscious enjoyment, then David is represented as 
looking to the Resurrection for satisfaction, and yet as de- 
claring there was fulness of joy before : in other words, he 
could be in the presence of God, where there is fulness of 
joy, and not be satisfied. So far as David is concerned, 
Peter settles that point, Acts 2:34; "For David is not 
ascended into the heavens." Where is David ? Acts 2 : 29, 
" The Patriarch David is both dead and buried." When he 
awakes, as he will "at the last day," with all the saints, 
then he will " be satisfied." 

We will now look more directly at the Old Testament 
doctrine on this subject. Let us begin with man's creation, 
Gen. 2:7: " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of 
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
and man became a living soul." To this living soul God 
said, " But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
thou shalt not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest there- 
of, thou shalt surely die." Or, " dying thou shalt die," as 
the Hebrew has it. Now look at Psa. 146 : 4 ; " His breath 
goeth forth, [that is, what his Maker breathed into him] he 
returneth to his earth ; [there goes his body] in that very 
day his thoughts perish." What is there left of him? Job 
says, chap.. 14 : 10 — 12, " But man dieth and wasteth away: 
yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ? As the 
waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth 
up : So man lieth down and riseth not : till the heavens be 
no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their 
sleep." 



THE WICKED NOT IMMORTAL. 



PAIN AND PUNISHMENT NOT INSEPARABLE. 

I r What is the Scripture argument that the righteous and the 
j wicked are not equally immortal 1 The Bible expressly declares 
that the righteous put on "immortality" — that they have "eter- 
nal life," and it as expressly declares that Christ will "burn up 
I the wicked ;" yea, that the Lord of Hosts "shall burn them up," 
| so that they shall be left " neither root nor branch," — that they 
| shall die — be destroyed for ever — perish — utterly perish, &c. 
i The notion that pain and punishment are inseparable is erro- 
neous. If pain were essential, in order to constitute punishment, 
then our laws inflict the lightest punishment, or penalty, on the 
greatest offenders. But our civil laws are based on the princi- 
ple that life is a blessing, and the deprivation of that life, an 
evil, loss, penalty or punishment. If the deprivation of life, 
which is a blessing, is a punishment, then an eternal depriva- 
tion of it will be an eternal punishment. But some think that 
people cannot be punished unless they are conscious of the fact, 
but the laws of the land do not so regard punishment, or death 
would be only a momentary punishment, for the law does not 
look into the future. Besides, you may take a being whose life 
is the most wretched imaginable, and yet the law would regard 
the deprivation of that miserable life, even if the individual were 
a Christian, as the highest penalty it can inflict. It is the de- 
privation of the life itself— not the pain inflicted, or the pain 
which God may inflict after death, to which the law looks. 
Hence the deprivation of a blessing, whether the individual re- 
mains sensible of it or not, is punishment, and if that depriva- 
tion is eternal, the punishment is eternal. If Gabriel were to 
transgress, and to be instantly, without a single pang, blotted 
eternally out of existence, would it not be to him an ETERNAL 
PUNISHMENT? 



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